[359]. An "Hadís."
[360]. Arab. "Sabb" = using the lowest language of abuse, chiefly concerning women-relatives and their reproductive parts.
[361]. The reader will note in the narration concerning the two Queens the parallelism of the Arab's style which recalls that of the Hebrew poets. Strings of black silk are plaited into the long locks (an "idiot-fringe" being worn over the brow) because a woman is cursed "who joineth her own hair to the hair of another" (especially human hair). Sending the bands is a sign of affectionate submission; and, in extremest cases the hair itself is sent.
[362]. i.e., suffer similar pain at the spectacle, a phrase often occurring.
[363]. i.e., when the eye sees not, the heart grieves not.
[364]. i.e., unto Him we shall return, a sentence recurring in almost every longer chapter of the Koran.
[365]. Arab. "Kun," the creative Word (which, by the by, proves the Koran to be an uncreated Logos); the full sentence being "Kun fa kána" = Be! and it became. The origin is evidently, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." (Gen. i. 3); a line grand in its simplicity and evidently borrowed from the Egyptians; even as Yahveh (Jehovah) from "Ankh" = He who lives (Brugsch Hist. ii. 34).
[366]. i.e. but also for the life and the so-called "soul."
[367]. Arab. "Layáli" = lit. nights which, I have said, is often applied to the whole twenty-four hours. Here it is used in the sense of "fortune" or "fate;" like "days" and "days and nights."
[368]. Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr a nephew of Ayishah, who had rebuilt the Ka'abah in A.H. 64 (A.D. 683), revolted (A.D. 680) against Yezid and was proclaimed Caliph at Meccah. He was afterwards killed (A.D. 692) by the famous or infamous Hajjáj general of Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, the fifth Ommiade, surnamed "Sweat of a stone" (skin-flint) and "Father of Flies," from his foul breath. See my Pilgrimage, etc. iii., 192-194, where are explained the allusions to the Ka'abah and the holy Black Stone.