“Ti Farshi says that ‘some astronomers state that the Nile comes from beyond the equator 11½°, and then flows on to Damietta and Alexandria at 30° lat. N. They say from its source to its mouth are 142⅓° nearly, hence the length would be 8614⅓ miles with all its meanderings. It meanders eastward and westward greatly.’
“Achmed, son of Ti Farshi, in his book of the description of the Nile, says, ‘historians relate that Adam bequeathed the Nile unto Seth his son, and it remained in the possession of these children of prophecy and of religion, and they came down to Egypt (or Cairo) and it was then called Lul, so they came and dwelt upon the mountains. After them came a son Kinaan, then his son Mahaleel, and then his son Yaoud, and then his son Hamu and his son Hermes—that is Idrisi the prophet.[19] Idrisi began to reduce the land to law and order. The Nile used to come flowing down upon them, and they would escape from it to the high mountains and to elevated land until the river fell, then they would plant whatever country was left bare. Idrisi gathered the people of Egypt and went with them to the first stream of the Nile,[20] and there adjusted the levelling of the land and of the water by lowering the high land and raising the low land and other things according to the science of astronomy and surveying. Idrisi was the first person who spoke and wrote books upon these sciences. He then went to the land of Abyssinia and Nubia, and gathered the people, and extended the distance of the flow of the Nile, or reduced it according to the swiftness or sluggishness of the stream. He even calculated the volume of the water and the rate of flow. He is the first man who regulated the flow of the Nile to Egypt. It is said that in the days of Am Kaam, one of the Kings of Egypt, Idrisi was taken up to Heaven, and he prophesied the coming of the flood, so he remained the other side of the equator and there built a palace on the slopes of Mount Gumr.[21] He built it of copper, and made eighty-five statues of copper, the waters of the Nile flowing out through the mouths of these statues and then flowing into a great lake and thence to Egypt.’
“Idyar el Wadi says, ‘the length of the Nile is two months’ journey in Moslem territory, and four months’ journey in uninhabited country. That its source is from Mount Gumr beyond the equator, and that it flows to the light coming out of the river of darkness, and flows by the base of Mount Gumr.’
“Mohammed, the Prophet of God, says:—
“‘The Nile comes out of the Garden of Paradise, and if you were to examine it when it comes out, you would find in it leaves of Paradise.’
“King Am Kaam, mentioned above, is Hermes I. The devils carried him to this mountain, which is called Gumr, and there he saw how the Nile flows out of the Black Sea and enters into the mountain of Gumr. King Am Kaam built on the slopes of the mountain a palace having eighty-five statues, to which he collected all the water that flows from this mountain, conducting it in vaulted conduits until the water reaches the statues and flows out of their mouths in measured quantities and calculated cubic contents. It thence flows in many rivers until it reaches the Great Central Lake.[22] Round this lake is the country of the Soudan and their great city Garma. In this great lake is a mountain which traverses it, going out of the lake and extending north-west.[23] From this mountain the Nile flows on a month’s journey and then it divides in the land of Nubia, one division going to the far west, and in this branch is the greater part of the country called the Soudan—whilst the other is the branch which flows down to the land of Egypt, and beyond Assouan it divides into four branches and thus flows into the sea at Damietta and Alexandria. It is said that three of these branches flow into the Mediterranean, whereas the fourth branch flows into the Salt Lake and thence to Alexandria.
“It is said that the rivers Sihon, Gihon, the Nile and the Euphrates, all start from a green jasper dome from a mountain, and that this mountain is near the Dark Sea.[24] That the waters are sweeter than honey, and more fragrant than musk, but that the waters are changed in the course of the flow.
“Sheikh Izz Edin, son of Ibn Gamar, says in his book on medicine (and I have copied from the autograph manuscript), that the source of the Nile is from Mount Gumr beyond the equator by 11° and 20′. From this mountain start ten rivers from various sources, each five of which flow into a great round lake, which is distant from the extreme uninhabited country of the west by 57°, and from the equator 7° and 31′ to the south, and these two lakes are equal, the diameter of each being 5°. Out of each one of these two lakes flow two rivers which empty into one great lake in the first zone. It is distant from the uninhabited country of the west by 53° and 30′. It is distant north of the equator 2°. Each one of these four rivers empties itself separately into this great lake, and from it comes out one single river, and this is the Nile. It passes through the country to Nubia, and joins another river, whose source is from another part near the equator, from a great round lake whose diameter is 3°, and which is distant from the confines of inhabited country on the west of 71°.
“After it has passed the city of Cairo, it reaches a town called Shatanuf, where it divides into two rivers, both of which flow into the salt sea, one of these branches being called the Rosetta River, and the other the Damietta River. This river reaches to Mansoura, and there branches off from it the river called Ashmun, which empties into a lake there, and the remainder flows into the salt sea near Damietta, and here I give a plan of Mount Gumr.
“The historian El Gahez, in his description of countries, says that ‘the source of the river of Sindh[25] and the river Nile is from one place,’ and that he came to this conclusion because ‘the two rivers rise at the same time, and because the crocodile is found in them both,’ and that ‘the kind of land-cultivation upon both is the same.’ The historian Mashi, in his ‘History of Egypt,’ says that in the country of Tegala is a Soudanese tribe of the same name in whose land gold crops up, and that in their land the Nile splits and becomes two rivers, the one branch being the Nile of Egypt, and the other being green, which flows eastward and traverses the salt sea to the landing of Sindh, and this is the river called Meharaam.