God the Most High has said: ‘And it is related of the lords of the pit.’ Historians and commentators have stated that the contrivers of the pit dwelt in Yaman, and that they were governed by a powerful king named Zunnuwâs, who had a wazir, skilled in magic and soothsaying, to whom he entrusted the supreme administration of the State. When this wazir was overtaken by weakness and old age, and the time of his departure to the infernal regions was close at hand, he requested the king to procure an intelligent youth for the purpose of instructing him in the arts of sorcery, and making him fit to become his successor in the office. Zunnuwâs complied with this demand, and brought him a young man of considerable talents. Some have related that while this youth was under the tuition of the wazir and studied magic, he went out one night for some purpose, and heard the following words reaching his ears from under the ground: ‘O glorious one! what will save me from Thy wrath? I swear by Thy glory that I am melting with desire to please thee, and that my soul has on the strength of the hope of the return of Thy favour, ceased to be subject to transgressions by lusts.’ Then the young man searched and discovered the entrance to a subterraneous apartment, where he found a monk dressed in sackcloth, engaged in prayers and lamentations. The monk asked the youth: ‘Who has brought thee to this place? I have severed myself from the world, and am contented with eating grass, and wearing sackcloth.’ The young man replied: ‘After hearing thy voice and beholding thy countenance, I feel great inclination to make profession of the religion of Islâm.’ The monk adjured him to inform no one about this subject for fear of imperilling his life, but nevertheless accepted his profession. He then became a Musulmân, visited the monk whenever he got an opportunity, profited much by intercourse with him, so that his own prayers met with responses, and he was enabled to work various miracles. On a certain occasion he met a crowd of people standing on the road, and asking for the reason, he was informed that a dragon was blocking the way. At the invitation of the young man the people followed him and encountered the dangerous monster; but the young man drew his hand over the back of the dragon, which act caused it immediately to retire, and to disappear from the sight of the people, all of whom were amazed at this miracle.
On another occasion he saw a lion pursuing a number of men, who were trying to run away from him; but this young man approached the beast of prey, whispered something in its ear, which caused it immediately to hasten to the desert. After that he met one of the chamberlains of Zunnuwâs, who was blind, and whom all the physicians had given up. To him he said: ‘If thou wilt follow me, I shall pray to the Lord of Glory to restore thy sight.’ When the chamberlain had made a promise to that effect, the youth prayed, and the chamberlain regained his sight, on condition, however, not to reveal the secret of his miraculous cure to anyone without stringent necessity. Accordingly when the king asked him how he had been cured of his blindness, he replied: ‘God the Most High has given me health.’ Zunnuwâs asked: ‘What God?’ The chamberlain reiterated: ‘The God of heaven and earth, besides whom there is no other, and who is omnipotent.’ Zunnuwâs insisted on the details of the case, and asked the chamberlain by whose words he had thus been beguiled, but as he would confess nothing the king condemned him to death. When matters had come to this pass, the chamberlain mentioned the name of the youth who was under the tuition of the wazir to learn magic. Therefore the king summoned the youth to his presence, who confessed that he had restored the sight of the chamberlain by his prayers. The king then examined his wazir whether he was able to heal blindness, and the sorcerer replied: ‘How could I teach anyone a thing which I do not know myself?’ Then the king asked the youth: ‘Who has brought thee to this degree of perfection, and what is thy religion?’ Hereon the young man narrated his intercourse with the secluded monk, and exclaimed: ‘I say that my God is He, besides whom there is no other; the Lord of heaven and earth, who causes men to be born and to die, and He doeth what He willeth!’ Hearing these words, the king took much trouble to cause him to abandon these principles; but all his efforts were to no purpose.
It is also related that the youth was so much threatened and persecuted, that he at last revealed the hiding-place of the monk, who, having thereon been dragged to the spot of execution, was addressed by Zunnuwâs in the following strain: ‘After thou hast committed such a transgression, thou must abdicate thy religion, and I shall pardon thee.’ But as the hermit refused to comply, he was killed, and the chamberlain likewise tasted the beverage of martyrdom. On that occasion the king said to the youth: ‘If thou lovest thy life, thou must give up thy belief.’ But as he also refused, Zunnuwâs surrendered him to a crowd of people, who were to throw him into the water, to become the food of fishes; when, however, they reached the seashore, the youth prayed, a wind arose, which swept the people of Zunnuwâs into the sea, and the young man returned safe. The king, having been informed of what had taken place, cited the youth to his presence, and asked him in what manner he had escaped death? and he replied: ‘Verily my Lord has saved me, and has destroyed them!’ At these words the king became so incensed with anger, that he ordered him to be thrown down from the top of a high mountain; but when the young man was taken there, a storm precipitated the idolaters down to the foot of the mountain, and he escaped. When the young man returned, Zunnuwâs ordered him to be hanged on a cross, but all the arrows shot at him [before that operation] took no effect; and a fire having been kindled [after he had been suspended] under the cross, so that the flames ascended towards the sky, not a hair of his head was burnt. At last the king ordered a shower of arrows to be discharged at him, but not one of them struck the youth.
It is related that when seven days had elapsed after the crucifixion of this young man, he addressed the king, who had come to the cross with a great crowd of people, as follows: ‘O tyrant! Thy missile will pierce my body, if thou utterest at the time of shooting it the words: “I discharge this arrow in the name of the Lord of this boy!”’ Accordingly Zunnuwâs pronounced these words and shot the arrow, which struck the youth in a mortal spot, whereon the bird of his soul immediately flew to the throne of God. The majority of the people, however, who had assembled near the cross and witnessed this scene, exclaimed: ‘We believe in the Lord of this boy.’ The courtiers of Zunnuwâs then said to him: ‘What thou hast dreaded has happened.’ Whereat the king became so incensed with anger, that he commanded bonfires to be lit on the mountains, the sparks of which reached the flambeau of the sun, and all persons refusing to renounce the faith were thrown into the flames. It is said that the last person who was given the option to choose between combustion and renunciation of the religion was a woman with a sucking-babe in her arms, for the sake of which she was willing to adopt the persuasion of Zunnuwâs; but all of a sudden God bestowed the gift of speech on the infant, and it spoke as follows: ‘O mother! fear thy Creator, and do not prefer unbelief to religion.’ The woman replied: ‘My love for thee has induced me to do so.’ But the babe continued: ‘There is no need of it, because the Most Merciful of those who are merciful will deliver us from the persecution of this infidel.’ Thereon the mother leapt into the fire with her child, but the Almighty caused the fire to be cold to them, screening them both from the sight of the people, and then leading them safely out of it. After the cremation of the monotheists, the fire spread in all directions and consumed the infidels likewise, as the Most High has said: ‘For them is the punishment of hell and the punishment of fire.’
It is related that during the reign of O’mar Bin Khettâb —u. w. b., etc.—some Arabs of the desert, who were professors of Islam, discovered in a valley of Yaman an individual suspended on a cross, one of whose hands was on his chin, but returned to it again every time it was removed therefrom, whereat they were much astonished. They represented the case to O’mar—u. w. b., etc.—who referred them to Ka’b-ullâkhbâr, whereon the latter narrated the story of Zunnuwâs, the crucifixion of the youth, and of the contrivers of the pit, as has been narrated above; whereon O’mar ordered the crucified man to be taken down, shrouded, and buried.