The shooting pains of neuralgia forcing him to take forty-eight hours' rest, he entrusted the standard to Abu Bakr, who led an attack through the breach, with the most ardent courage, but he also had to beat a retreat at last. Umar took his place, accomplishing prodigies of valour, likewise without success.
Hearing of their failure, Mohammad declared: 'By Allah! to-morrow I'll confide the flag to an intrepid fellow, to whom flight is unknown. He loveth Allah and His Messenger, and by them he is beloved. 'Tis he who will capture Al-Qamus by sheer strength.'
Next day, all the companions clustering close to the Prophet were anxious to learn who was the man among them to be so greatly honoured. But without glancing at the group, he sent for Ali who had to remain in the rear because he was suffering from painful ophthalmia. Led by a friend, he came into the Prophet's presence. Ali's eyes were covered by a bandage.
'Come hither, close to me,' said Mohammad. 'Take this flag and keep a hold on it until the Almighty shall open a way for thee through these ramparts.'—'I suffer cruelly from my eyes, O Prophet!' replied Ali. 'I cannot even see to walk.'
Mohammad made Ali rest his head in his lap; separated the young man's swollen eyelids, and rubbed the bloodshot eyes with a little saliva. All inflammation vanished immediately and every vestige of pain disappeared.... The Prophet then buckled his own breastplate on Ali and armed him with his own sword, celebrated under the title of "Dhu'l-Fiqar".
Ali went towards the fortress, planting in the ground, close to the ramparts, the white flag on which stood out in bold relief, embroidered in black letters, the Islamic profession of faith. He then got ready to storm the breach.... Al-Harith, at the head of a few Jews, tried to bar the way and drive back the Mussulman hero, but the leader of the children of Israel succumbed, struck down by Ali; and the soldiers who had followed all ran away.
The brother of Al-Harith, Marhab, famous and feared, came now to the front, eager for revenge. He produced an effect of terror by his gigantic stature, double armour, a pair of swords, a three-headed spear, a double turban; and his helmet on which sparkled a jewel as big as an egg. His eyes, too, glistened like two carbuncles. Puffed up by pride, he strode to the breach. 'The whole of the land of Khaibar, from end to end, knoweth my valour! When war rageth, sometimes I pierce with my lance; and sometimes I slice with my sword! Doth there exist in all the world a champion who dare stand up against me?'
Without being moved by this bragging bombast, Ali showed himself to take up the challenge: 'I'll be that man! Verily I, called by my mother Haydra, the lion cub, in memory of my father, known as the Lion. With my sabre I'll give thee good measure!'
Hearing this reply, Marhab became purple with rage. Brandishing his scimitar, he rushed at Ali. The formidable blade hissed through the air and it seemed as if the champion of Islam had just been annihilated. But the sword of the terrible Jew was stopped by Ali's shield in which it penetrated deeply and stuck therein. Without giving his adversary time to drag it away, Ali loosened his hold of the buckler, now useless and in his way, and replied to the attack by a wonderful cut that split the helmet, turban and skull of his enemy, scattering the brains in every direction. The steel was only stopped by the Jew's teeth, forming barrier. The giant fell in a huddled heap, like a tower ruined by an earthquake, in a cloud of dust, with a noise as of thunder....
Seized with affright, the Jewish soldiers fled, pursued by Ali's men. He tore from its hinges the heavy door of the ramparts and it served him as a shield in place of the one broken in the fight. Resistance was cut short and Al-Qamus, the impregnable, was captured by the warriors of Islam.