[201] ’Bū is often used as a contraction for Abū. Abū-Jahl (Father of Ignorance) was a nickname (see Tale iv. dist. 48, note) given by Muhammed to ‘Amr, son of Hishām, a chief of the Quraysh, his bitter enemy, formerly entitled Abū-’l-Hakem (Father of the Arbitrator). He was killed, a pagan, in the battle of Badr, in the second year of the Hijra, A.D. 624.
[202] The word rendered by “explanation” here, means also information, and use, advantage, profit, benefit, &c.
[203] Literally, “your morning cup,” drunk at dawn ere leaving a house.
[204] Asiatics drink “to the love” of a friend; not “to his health.”
[205] The parrot is known by the title “Sugar-eating.”
[206] A shade of an explanation to this very hazardous saying of the Sūfī Gnostics is found in Qur’ān xvi. 108: “Whoever denieth God after he hath believed, except him who shall be compelled against his will, and whose heart continueth steadfast in the faith, shall be severely chastised.”
[207] The dervish orders call their peculiar cap a “mitre” or “crown” (tāj).
[208] The “four rivers” of Paradise, of water, milk, wine, and honey. Qur’ān xlvii. 16.
[209] Qur’ān iii. 31; and numerous other places.
[210] This section purports to have been suggested by the following couplet from ‘Attār:—