saw the water beneath the earth, and directed to it by pecking the
earth, whereupon the devils used to draw it forth when Solomon wanted
it_ [to perform the ablution] _for prayer; but he saw it not_: and he
said, Wherefore do I not see the lapwing? Is it [one] of the
absent?—_And when he was certain of the case he said_, I will
assuredly punish it with a severe punishment, _by plucking out its
feathers and its tail and casting it in the sun so that it shall not
be able to guard against excessive thirst_; or I will slaughter it; or
it shall bring me a manifest convincing proof _showing its
excuse_.—And it tarried not long _before it presented itself unto
Solomon submissively, and raised its head and relaxed its tail and its
wings: so he forgave it; and he asked it what it had met with during
its absence_; and it said, I have become acquainted with that
wherewith thou hast not become acquainted, and I have come unto thee
from Seba (_a tribe of El-Yemen_) with a sure piece of news. I found a
woman reigning over them, _named Bilḳees_, and she hath been gifted
with everything _that princes require_, and hath a magnificent throne.
_(Its length was eighty cubits; and its breadth, forty cubits; and its
height, thirty cubits: it was composed of gold and silver set with
fine pearls and with rubies and chrysolites, and its legs were of
rubies and chrysolites and emeralds: upon it_ [were closed] _seven
doors: to each chamber_ [through which one passed to it was] _a closed
door_.) I found her and her people worshipping the sun instead of God,
and the devil hath made their works to seem comely unto them, so that
he hath hindered them from the _right_ way, wherefore they are not
rightly directed to the worship of God, who produceth what is hidden
(_namely the rain and vegetables_) in the heavens and the earth, and
knoweth what they [that is, mankind and others] conceal _in their
hearts_, and what they reveal _with their tongues_. God: there is no
deity but He, the Lord of the magnificent throne, _between which and
the throne of Bilḳees is a vast difference_.
_Solomon_ said _to the lapwing_, We will see whether thou hast spoken
truth or whether thou art of the liars. _Then the lapwing guided them
to the water, and it was drawn forth_ [by the devils]; _and they
quenched their thirst and performed the ablution and prayed. Then
Solomon wrote a letter, the form whereof was this:—From the servant of
God, Solomon the son of David, to Bilḳees the queen of Seba. In the
name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Peace be on whomsoever
followeth the right direction. After_ [this salutation, I say], _Act
ye not proudly towards me; but come unto me submitting.—He then sealed
it with musk, and stamped it with his signet, and said unto the
lapwing_, Go with this my letter and throw it down unto them (_namely
Bilḳees and her people_): then turn away from them, _but stay near
them_, and see what _reply_ they will return. _So the lapwing took it,
and came unto her, and around her were her forces; and he threw it
down into her lap; and when she saw it, she trembled with fear. Then
she considered what was in it, and_ she said _unto the nobles of her
people_, O nobles, an honourable (_sealed_) letter hath been thrown
down unto me. It is from Solomon; and it is _this_:—In the name of
God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Act ye not proudly towards me:
but come unto me submitting.—She said, O nobles, advise me in mine
affair. I will not decide upon a thing unless ye bear me
witness.—They replied, We are endowed with strength and endowed with
great valour; but the command [belongeth] to thee; therefore see what
thou wilt command _us to do, and we will obey thee_. She said, Verily
kings, when they enter a city, waste it, and render the mighty of its
inhabitants abject; and thus will they do _who have sent the letter_.
But I will send unto them with a gift, and I will see with what the
messengers will return, _whether the gift will be accepted, or whether
it will be rejected. If he be_ [merely] _a king, he will accept it;
and if he be a prophet, he will not accept it.—And she sent male and
female servants, a thousand in equal numbers_ [five hundred of each
sex], _and five hundred bricks of gold, and a crown set with jewels,
and musk and ambergris and other things, by a messenger with a
letter.[317] And the lapwing hastened unto Solomon, to tell him the
news; on hearing which, he commanded that bricks of gold and silver
should be cast, and that a horse-course should be extended to the
length of nine leagues from the place where he was, and that they
should build around it a wall with battlements, of gold and silver,
and that the handsomest of the beasts of the land and of the sea
should be brought with the sons of the jinn on the right side of the
horse-course and on its left._
And when _the messenger_ came _with the gift, and with him his
attendants_, unto Solomon, he [Solomon] said, Do ye aid me with
wealth? But what God hath given me (_namely the gift of prophecy and
the kingdom_) is better than what He hath given you, _of worldly
goods_; yet ye rejoice in your gift, _because ye glory in the showy
things of this world_. Return unto them _with the gift that thou hast
brought_; for we will surely come unto them with forces with which
they have not power [to contend], and we will surely drive them out
from it, (_that is, from their country, Seba, which was named after
the father of their tribe_,) abject and contemptible, _if they come
not unto us submitting. And when the messenger returned unto her with
the gift, she placed her throne within seven doors, within her palace,
and her palace was within seven palaces; and she closed the doors, and
set guards to them, and prepared to go unto Solomon, that she might
see what he would command her to do. She departed with twelve thousand
kings, each king having with him many thousands, and proceeded until
she came as near to him as a league’s distance; when he knew of her_
[approach,] he said, O nobles, which of you will bring unto me her
throne before they come unto me submitting? An ´efreet, of the jinn,
answered, I will bring it unto thee before thou shalt arise from thy
place _wherein thou sittest to judge from morning until mid-day_; for
I am able to do it, [and] trustworthy _with respect to the jewels that
it compriseth and other matters. Solomon said, I desire it more
speedily._ [And thereupon] he with whom was knowledge of the
_revealed_ scripture (_namely_ [his Wezeer] _Áṣaf the son of Barkhiya,
who was a just person, acquainted with the most great name of God,
which ensured an answer to him who invoked thereby_[318]) said, I will
bring it unto thee before thy glance can be withdrawn _from any
object. And he said unto him, Look at the sky. So he looked at it;
then he withdrew his glance, and found it placed before him: for
during his look towards the sky, Áṣaf prayed, by the most great name,
that God would bring it; and it so happened, the throne passing under
the ground until it came up before the throne of Solomon._ And when he
saw it firmly placed before him, he said, This is of the favour of my
Lord, that He may try me, whether I shall be thankful or whether I
shall be unthankful. And he who is thankful is thankful for _the sake
of_ his own soul, _which will have the reward of his thankfulness_;
and [as to] him who is ungrateful, my Lord is independent [and]
bountiful.
[Then Solomon] said, Alter ye her throne so that it may not be known
by her, that we may see whether she be rightly directed _to the
knowledge thereof_, or whether she be of those who are not rightly
directed _to the knowledge of that which is altered. He desired
thereby to try her intelligence. So they altered it, by adding to it,
or taking from it, or in some other manner._ And when she came, it was
said _unto her_, Is thy throne like this? She answered, As though it
were the same. (_She answered them ambiguously like as they had
questioned her ambiguously, not saying, Is this thy throne?—and had
they so said, she had answered, Yes._) _And when Solomon saw her
knowledge, he said_, And we have had knowledge bestowed on us before
her, and have been Muslims. But what she worshipped instead of God
hindered her _from worshipping Him_; for she was of an unbelieving
people.—It was said unto her _also_, Enter the palace. _It had a floor
of white, transparent glass, beneath which was running water, wherein
were fish. Solomon had made it on its being said unto him that her
legs and feet were_ [hairy] _like the legs of an ass._ And when she
saw it, she imagined it to be a great water, and she uncovered her
legs, _that she might wade through it; and Solomon was on his throne
at the upper end of the palace, and he saw that her legs and her feet
were handsome_. He said _unto her_, Verily it is a palace evenly
spread with glass. _And he invited her to embrace El-Islám_,
[whereupon] she said, O my Lord, verily I have acted unjustly towards
mine own soul, _by worshipping another than Thee_, and I resign
myself, with Solomon, unto God, the Lord of the worlds. _And he
desired to marry her; but he disliked the hair upon her legs; so the
devils made for him the depilatory of quick-lime, wherewith she
removed the hair, and he married her; and he loved her, and confirmed
her in her kingdom. He used to visit her every month once, and to
remain with her three days; and her reign expired on the expiration
of the reign of Solomon. It is related that he began to reign when he
was thirteen years of age, and died at the age of three and fifty
years. Extolled be the perfection of Him to the duration of whose
dominion there is no end!_
(xxvii. 15-45.)
_We subjected_ unto Solomon the wind, which travelled in the morning
(_unto the period when the sun began to decline_) _the distance of_ a
month’s _journey_, and in the evening _from the commencement of the
declining of the sun into its setting_ a month’s _journey_. And We
made the fountain of molten brass to flow for him _three days with
their nights_ [in every month], _as water floweth;[319] and the people
worked until the day_ [of its flowing], _with that which had been
given into Solomon_. And of the jinn [were] those who worked in his
presence, by the will of his Lord; and such of them as swerved from
_obedience to_ Our command We will cause to taste of the punishment of
hell _in the world to come_ (_or, as it is said by some, We cause to
taste of its punishment in the present world, an angel beating them
with a scourge from hell, the stripe of which burneth them_). They
made for him whatever he pleased, of lofty halls (_with steps whereby
to ascend to them_), and images (_for they were not forbidden by his
law_[320]), and large dishes, like great tanks for watering camels,
_around each of which assembled a thousand men, eating from it_, and
cooking-pots standing firmly _on their legs, cut out from the
mountains in El-Yemen, and to which they ascended by ladders_. _And We
said_, Work, O family of David, _in the service of God_, with
thanksgiving _unto Him for what He hath given you_:—but few of My
servants are the thankful. And when We decreed that he (_namely,
Solomon_) should die, _and he died, and remained standing, and leaning
upon his staff for a year, dead, the jinn meanwhile performing those
difficult works as they were accustomed to do, not knowing of his
death, until the worm ate his staff, whereupon he fell down_, nothing
showed them his death but the eating reptile (_the worm_) that ate his
staff.[321] And when he fell down, the jinn plainly perceived that if
they had known things unseen (_of which things was the death of
Solomon_), they had not continued in the ignominious affliction (_that
is, in their difficult works_), _imagining that he was alive,
inconsistently with their opinion that they knew things unseen. And
that the period was a year was known by calculating what the worm had
eaten of his staff since his death in each day and night or other
space of time._ (xxxiv. 11-13.)
_JONAH._
Verily Jonah [Yoonus] was one of the apostles. [Remember] when he fled
unto the laden ship, _being angry with his people, because the
punishment wherewith he had threatened them did not fall upon them;
wherefore he embarked in the ship; and it became stationary in the
midst of the sea: so the sailors said, Here is a slave who hath fled
from his master, and the lot will discover him_:—and he cast lots
_with those who were in the ship_, and he was [the] one upon whom the
lot fell. _They therefore cast him into the sea_, and the fish
swallowed him; and he was reprehensible, _for having gone to the sea,
and embarked in the ship, without the permission of his Lord_. And had
he not been of those who glorified God (_by his saying often in the
belly of the fish, There is no god but Thou! I extol Thy perfection!
Verily I have been of the offenders!_), he had remained in his belly
until the day of resurrection.[322] And We cast him on the plain land,
_the same day, or after three or seven days, or twenty or forty days_;
and he was sick; and We caused a gourd plant[323] to grow up over him,
_to shade him_. _It had a trunk, contrary to what is the case of
gourds in general, being miraculously produced for him._[324] _And a
wild she-goat came to him evening and morning, of whose milk he
drank until he became strong._ And We sent him _after that, as
before_, unto _his people in Nineveh, in the land of El-Moṣil_, a
hundred thousand, or they were a greater number by _twenty or thirty
or seventy thousand_; and they believed _on beholding the punishment
wherewith they had been threatened_;[325] wherefore We allowed them
enjoyment _of their goods_ for a time, _until the expiration of their
terms of life_.
(xxxvii. 139-148.)
_EZRA._
[Hast thou not considered] him who passed by a city (_which was
Jerusalem_), _riding upon an ass, and having with him a basket of figs
and a vessel of the juice of grapes_ (_and he was ´Ozeyr_ [Ezra]), and
it was falling down upon its roofs, _Nebuchadnezzar having ruined it_?
He said, _wondering at the power of God_, How will God quicken this
after its death?—And God caused him to die for a hundred years. Then
He raised him to life: [and] He said _unto him_, How long hast thou
tarried _here_?—He answered I have tarried a day, or part of a
day.—_For he slept in the first part of the day, and was deprived of
his life, and was reanimated at sunset._ He said Nay, thou hast
tarried a hundred years: but look at thy food and thy drink: they have
not become changed by time: and look at thine ass.—_And he beheld it
dead, and its bones white and shining.—We have done this that thou
mayest know_, and that We may make thee a sign _of the resurrection_
unto men. And look at the bones _of thine ass_, how We will raise
them; then We will clothe them with flesh.—_So he looked at them, and
they had become put together, and were clothed with flesh, and life
was breathed into it, and it brayed._ Therefore when it had been made
manifest to him he said, I know that God is able to accomplish
everything. (ii. 261.)
_THE MESSIAH._
_Remember_ when the wife of ´Imrán[326] said, (_when she had become
aged, and desired offspring, wherefore she supplicated God, and became
sensible of pregnancy_,) O my Lord, verily I devote unto Thee what is
in my womb, to be dedicated _to the service of Thy holy house_: then
accept [it] from me; for Thou art the Hearer _of prayer_, the Knower
_of intentions_. _And ´Imrán perished while she was pregnant._ And
when she gave birth to it, (_namely her daughter; and she was hoping
that it might be a boy; since none but boys were dedicated_,) she
said, O my Lord, verily I have brought forth a female, (and God well
knew what she had brought forth,) and the male is not as the female,
_the latter not being fit for the service_ [of the temple]; and I have
named her Mary [Maryam]; and I beg thy protection for her and her
offspring from the accursed devil.[327] (_In the traditions_ [it is
said], _No child is born but the devil hath touched it at the time of
its birth, wherefore it first raiseth its voice by crying, excepting
Mary and her son._[328]) And her Lord accepted her (_that is, He
accepted Mary from her mother_) with a gracious acceptance, and caused
her to grow with an excellent growth, _as though she grew in a day as
a child_ [generally] _groweth in a month_. _Her mother took her to the
doctors, the keepers of the Holy House, and said, Receive ye this
devoted child. And they eagerly desired her, because she was the
daughter of their chief. But Zechariah said, I am more worthy of
having her; for her maternal aunt is with me. They however replied,
Nay, but we will cast lots.—So they departed (and they were nine and
twenty) to the river Jordan, and cast their divining arrows on the
understanding that he whose arrow should become steady in the water
and rise should be_ [acknowledged] _most worthy of her; and the arrow
of Zechariah became steady, and he took her, and built for her a
chamber in the temple, with stairs to which no one ascended but
himself. And he used to bring her her food and her drink and her
ointment; and used to find with her the fruits of winter in summer,
and the fruits of summer in winter, as He—whose name be exalted!—hath
said_, And Zechariah maintained her. Whenever Zechariah went in to her
in the chamber, he found with her provisions. He said, O Mary, whence
came to thee this? She answered, (_being then a little child_,) It is
from God: _He bringeth it to me from Paradise_: for God supplieth whom
He pleaseth without reckoning.
Then, _when he saw this, and knew that He who was able to produce a
thing out of its season was able to give a child in old age, (and the
people of his house had become extinct,)_ Zechariah supplicated his
Lord, _when he had entered the chamber to pray in the latter part of
the night_. He said, O my Lord, give me from Thee a good offspring (_a
righteous son_); for Thou art the Hearer of prayer.—And the angels
(_by which is meant Gabriel_) called to him as he stood praying in the
chamber (_that is, the temple_), saying, God promiseth thee John
[Yaḥyá], who shall be a verifier of [the] Word _which cometh_ from
God, (_that is, Jesus_ [´Eesa]; _for he is the Spirit of God, and was
named_ [the] _Word because he was created by the word Be_,) and a
chief, (_or one followed_,) and chaste, and a prophet, of the
righteous. (_It is related that he neither did any sin nor intended
any._)—He said, O my Lord, how shall I have a son, when old age hath
come upon me, _when I have attained the utmost age, a hundred and
twenty years_, and my wife is barren, _and hath attained the age of
eight and ninety_?—He answered, _It shall be_ thus. God will do what
He pleaseth.—He said, O my Lord, give me a sign.—He replied, Thy sign
[shall be] that thou shalt not speak unto men for three days, except
by signal; but remember thy Lord often, and glorify [Him] in the
evening and in the morning.
(iii. 31-36.)
And he went forth unto his people from the chamber, and made a sign
unto them, [as though he would say] Glorify [God] in the morning and
in the evening _as usual_. _And he knew by his being prevented from
speaking unto them that his wife had conceived John. And after his
birth, by some years, God said unto him_, O John, receive the book
(_that is, the Law_) with resolution. And We bestowed on him wisdom
(_the gift of prophecy_) [when he was yet] a child, _three years of
age_, and compassion from Us _for mankind_, and [a disposition to
bestow] alms _upon them_. And he was pious, and dutiful to his
parents, and was not proud [nor] rebellious _toward his Lord_; and
peace _from Us_ [was] on him on the day when he was born, and on the
day of his death, and [shall be] on the day when he shall be raised to
life. (xix. 12-15.)
And _remember_ when the angels (_that is, Gabriel_) said, O Mary,
verily God hath chosen thee and hath purified thee and hath chosen
thee above the women of the peoples _of thy time_. O Mary, be devout
towards thy Lord and prostrate thyself and bow down with those who bow
down: _pray with those who pray_.—This is [one] of the announcements
of things unseen _by thee_: We reveal it unto thee, _O Moḥammad_; for
thou wast not with them when they cast their divining arrows _that it
might appear to them_ which of them should rear Mary, and thou wast
not with them when they disputed together _as to rearing
her_.—_Remember_ when the angels (_that is, Gabriel_) said, O Mary,
verily God promiseth thee [the] Word from Him, whose name [shall be]
the Messiah [El-Meseeḥ], Jesus the son of Mary, honourable in this
world _by his prophetic office_, and in the world to come _by his
intercession and high stations_, and of those admitted near _unto
God_; and he shall speak unto men in the cradle, and when of full
age,[329] and [he shall be] of the righteous.—She said, O my Lord, how
shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me?—He answered, _It
shall be_ thus; God will create what He pleaseth: when He determineth
a thing, He only saith unto it, Be,—and it is. And He will teach him
writing and wisdom and the Law and the Gospel, and _constitute him_ an
apostle to the children of Israel, _in youth or after adolescence_.
_And Gabriel breathed into the bosom of her shift; whereupon she
conceived; and those events of her history which are related in the
Soorat Maryam_ [Ḳur. xix.] _happened_.
(iii. 37-43.)
Relate in the book (_that is, the Ḳur-án_) _the history of_ Mary, when
she retired from her family to a place towards the east, _in the
house_, and she took a veil [to conceal herself] from them; and We
sent unto her our spirit _Gabriel_, and he appeared unto her as a
perfect man. She said, I beg the Compassionate to preserve me from
thee! If thou be a pious person, _thou wilt withdraw from me_.—He
replied, I am only the messenger of thy Lord [to inform thee] that He
will give thee a pure son, _endowed with the gift of prophecy_. She
said, How shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me, and I am
not a harlot? He answered, Thus _shall it be: a son shall be created
unto thee without a father_. Thy Lord saith, This is easy unto Me; and
_thus shall it be_ that We may make him a sign unto men, _showing Our
power_, and a mercy from Us _unto him who shall believe in him_: for
it is a thing decreed.—And she conceived him; and she retired with
him [yet unborn] to a distant place _far from her family_; and the
pains of childbirth urged her to repair to the trunk of a palm-tree
_that she might lean against it_. _And she gave birth to the child,
which was conceived and formed and born in an hour._[330] She said,
Oh! would that I had died before this _event_, and had been a thing
forgotten [and] unnoticed!—But he who was below her (_namely Gabriel,
who was on a lower place than she_) called to her, Grieve not. God
hath made below thee a rivulet: and shake thou towards thee the trunk
of the palm-tree (_which was dried-up_); it shall let fall upon thee
ripe dates, fresh-gathered: therefore eat _of the dates_, and drink
_of the water of the rivulet_, and be of cheerful eye _on account of
the child_: and if thou see any one of mankind, _asking thee
concerning the child_, say, I have vowed unto the Compassionate an
abstinence _from speech with mankind respecting him and other
matters_; therefore I will not speak to-day unto a man _after this_.