RECORD OF SOME OF THE EVENTS AND SIGNS THAT OCCURRED BEFORE THE BIRTH OF HIM WHO SITS IN THE CHIEF LITTER OF THE CARAVAN OF PROPHETS.

It is related after Ebn A’bbâs, that when the reality of Muhammad’s light—u. w. b.—was transferred to the person of Aminah, all the Arab soothsayers became aware thereof, and communicated the information to each other. In the East and in the West of the world the wild beasts and the birds congratulated each other, and said: ‘The time is at hand when the world will become illuminated by the presence of the father of Qâsim.’* And the cattle of the Qoraish tribe began to speak, saying: ‘The mother of Muhammad is pregnant with Muhammad, who will be the Amîn* of the earth and the luminary of the age.’

It is related that on the morning of the conception the idols in all the inhabited quarter of the earth* were over­turned, the throne of Satan fell, and the couches of sovereigns were prostrated upside down. Jebrâil [Gabriel] brought the green Muhammadan standard and erected it on the top of the Ka’bah. Angels proclaimed the news, saying: ‘Glad tidings to you, because the light of Muhammad —u. w. b.—has become fixed in the womb of Aminah, and will, after having been transmuted into the best of creatures, receive a mission in the most appropriate manner.’ During the whole time of pregnancy the embryo had not suffered the least injury, and there is a tradition of Aminah that from the beginning of the conception no sign whatever of her pregnancy manifested itself during six months, except the cessation of her courses. She further relates that after the expiration of that time a man once asked her, at a time when she was half asleep and half awake, whether she was aware of her pregnancy, and she replied in the negative, and that she became conscious thereof only after having been informed by him that she would give birth to the prophet of the Arabs. When the time of her confinement approached, the same individual made his appearance and instructed her to pronounce the words: ‘I take refuge with the Self-Existent and Only One, from the evil [machinations] of every envious person.’ Then he enjoined her to name the infant Muhammad as soon as he was born. She repeated the name, remembered it, and narrated to other women all that had taken place; and by their advice she put two iron hoops on her arm and neck, which a man some time afterwards removed from her, telling her no longer to keep them near her. It is also related that Aminah said: ‘When I was asleep that night, I dreamt that a light issued from me, by the reflection whereof I beheld the Kiosk at Bassiri in Syria.’ The interest of this tradition is chiefly centred in the circum­stance that when the holy prophet honoured Bassiri— which is a town in Syria—with his presence during a journey, he passed by the just-mentioned spot.