“And He,—may the majesty of our Lord be exalted!—hath taken no spouse neither hath he any offspring.
“But the foolish among us hath spoken of God that which is unjust:
“And we verily thought that no one amongst men or jinn would have uttered a lie against God.
“There are indeed people among men, who have sought for refuge unto people among jinn: but they only increased their folly:
“And they thought as ye think, that God would not raise any from the dead.
“And the Heavens did we essay, but found them filled with a mighty garrison, and with flaming darts;
“And we sat on some of the seats to listen, but whoever listeneth findeth an ambush ready for him of flaming darts.”
The following exhaustive account of the Muḥammadan belief on the subject is taken from the writings of the late Mr. Lane (the learned author of the Modern Egyptians and of Notes on the Arabian Nights), but slightly altered to meet the requirements of the present work.
According to a tradition from the Prophet, this species consists of five orders, namely, Jānn (who are the least powerful of all), Jinn, Shait̤āns (or devils), ʿIfrīts, and Marīds. The last, it is added, are the most powerful; and the Jānn are transformed Jinn, like as certain apes and swine were transformed men. It must, however, be remarked that the terms Jinn and Jānn are generally used indiscriminately as names of the whole species, whether good or bad, and that the former term is the more common. Also, that Shait̤ān is commonly used to signify any evil genius. An ʿIfrīt is a powerful evil genius; a Marīd, an evil genius of the most powerful class. The Jinn (but, generally speaking, evil ones) are called by the Persians Deves, the most powerful evil Jinn, Narahs (which signifies “males,” though they are said to be males and females); the good Jinn, Pīrīs, though this term is commonly applied to females. In a tradition from the Prophet, it is said, “The Jānn were created of a smokeless fire.” The word which signifies “a smokeless fire” has been misunderstood by some as meaning “the flame of fire.” Al-Jauharī (in the Ṣiḥāḥ) renders it rightly; and says that of this fire was the Shait̤ān or Iblīs created. Al-Jānn is sometimes used as a name for Iblīs, as in the following verse of the Qurʾān ([Sūrah xv. 27]): “And the Jānn [the father of the Jinn, i.e. Iblīs] we had created before [i.e. before the creation of Adam] of the fire of the Samūm [i.e. of the fire without smoke].” Jānn also signifies “a serpent,” as in other passages of the Qurʾān, and is used in the same book as synonymous with Jinn. In the last sense it is generally believed to be used in the tradition quoted in the commencement of this paragraph. There are several apparently contradictory traditions from the Prophet, which are reconciled by what has been above stated; in one it is said that Iblīs was the father of all the Jānn and Shait̤ān; Jānn being here synonymous with Jinn; in another, that Jānn was the father of all the Jinn, here Jānn being used as a name for Iblīs.
“It is held,” says al-Qazwīnī, “that the Jinn are aerial animals, with transparent bodies, which can assume various forms. People differ in opinion respecting these beings; some consider the Jinn and Shait̤āns as unruly men, but these persons are of the Muʿtazilahs Arabian Nights, where the form of the monster is at first undefined, or like an enormous pillar, and then gradually assumes a human shape and less gigantic size.