Like meat on the tray.—An ancient proverbial expression, signifying the being vile and worthless, or exposed to contempt. The proverb, “Women are like meat on the tray,” is derived from a saying of the Khalif ‘Omar, quoted at Arab. Prov. I. 21, and means that they are worthless creatures and soil men’s reputations.

The tovern of a liquor-seller.—The word is thought by some to be derived from the Persian , but the more reasonable opinion is that it is another form of , the shop or vault of a vintner. At Jeremiah xxxvii. 16, where, in the English version, we read “When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins,” the meaning of the word is no doubt underground vaults or cells, and the name must have been afterwards applied to the cellars where vintners kept and sold their wine. is the shop of a vintner, and also the vintner himself; it is also used for any shop. The derivation from , because it destroys men’s property and wounds their honour is, of course, only the guess of a grammarian.

The white camels: camels of a white colour lightly mixed with yellow.

The last darkness of night.— is the setting forth on the journey after the or halt which is made in the later part of the night. It takes place either before dawn, or between the first dawn and the rising of the sun.

Left together those two old ones, i.e. left the way or space free between them; meaning, left the two free, each to do to the other as he pleased (Lane). We left Abû Zayd and the Devil alone together.

Iblîs.—The Moslem name for the Devil, probably a cor­ruption of diabolos, though said to be from , because he despairs of the mercy of God; his former name, before his im­piety, having been . It is also said to have been Al Ḥârith, and the first child of Eve was named ‘Abd al Ḥârith, in honour of him: Ṭabari. According to Koran ii. 28, he was of the number of the angels, and sinned by refusing to bow down to Adam when he was created. God had created the angels to inhabit heaven, and then purposed the creation of man upon earth. He said to the angels, “I am about to place a vicar, , in the earth.” They said to him, “Wilt thou place in it one who will work violence in it, and shed blood?” He said, “I know what ye know not.” Having created Adam, God told him the names of all things, and then brought him to the angels, and bade them name them if they could. When they were unable to do this, God bade Adam tell the names, and when Adam had done so, God bade the angels bow down to him. God did this as a trial of their faith, not intending that they should commit idolatry by worshipping Adam, but making Adam the , or point to which the prostration should be directed, the worship being received by God himself. All obeyed except Iblîs, who, according to repeated narratives of the event in the Koran, refused on the ground that he was made of fire, while Adam was only made of earth. He then appears to have been ejected from heaven, and to have become the enemy of man, whom he caused to be banished from Paradise. A diffi­cult question in connection with Iblîs is his relation to the Jinn. At Koran xviii. 48, it is said, “We said to the angels, ‘Bow down before Adam;’ and they all bowed down except Iblîs, and he was of the Jinn. . . . Will ye take Iblîs and his progeny as patrons, instead of me? They are your enemies.” From this it would appear that Iblîs belonged at once to the angels and the Jinn, though the Jinn are held to be a subordinate and a very different race of beings, for the angels dwell in heaven, have no distinction of sex, and do not propagate their species; while the Jinn, or at least some kinds of them, as the , the , and the , are both male and female, and engender. Jinn are also both good and bad, and will be judged at the last day. Some will go to hell, like men, Koran xi. 120, and some will be rewarded. There are also Jinn who are Moslems, and others who are infidels, for Khorâfeh, who was carried away by Jinn, related, when he returned, that there had been a war between the Jinn of the two religions. Moreover, we learn from Koran xlvi. 28, that God assembled a number of Jinn to hear the Koran read, and that then they returned as apostles to their race. Also in the Seventy-second Sura, called The Jinn, it is revealed that a number of them having listened to the Koran, believed in it, and at once renounced idolatry. On the other hand there are some that are of an essentially wicked nature, and resemble the . Such was the ‘Ifrît of the Jinn (interpreted by Bayḍâwi as one abominable and rebellious among the Jinn), who offered to bring to Solomon the throne of the Queen of Sheba, Koran xxvii. 39. From this difference of nature it is difficult to understand that Iblîs was of the Jinn; for though it is held that the Jinn, or, at least, those of them essen­tially wicked in their nature, are descended from Iblîs, who propagated them in a miraculous manner, yet he must have been himself originally of a different nature. Bayḍâwi, at Koran ii. 32, treats this question at length, and gives various opinions, one of which is that Iblîs, though an angel by nature, became of the Jinn by act, that is, adopted their character, which seems to be the prevalent opinion, though the high authority of Ibn ‘Abbâs is given for the opinion that there was an order of angels which begat children, and was called Jinn, to which order Iblîs belonged. He, like other devils, is cast at with fiery darts, according to the curse pronounced upon him by God: Koran xxxviii. 78. It is said that is a foreign word, and that for this reason, and also because it is a proper name, it is imperfectly declined.