Calet el Bedici Aben Habuz,
Quidat ehahet Lindabuz.
Which has been rendered into Spanish:
Dice el sabio Aben Habuz,
Que asi se defiende el Anduluz.
And into English:
In this way, says Aben Habuz the Wise,
Andaluz guards against surprise.
This Aben Habuz, according to some of the old Moorish chronicles, was a captain in the invading army of Taric, one of the conquerors of Spain, who left him as Alcayde of Granada. He is supposed to have intended this effigy as a perpetual warning to the Moslems of Andaluz, that, surrounded by foes, their safety depended upon their being always on their guard and ready for the field.
Others, among whom is the Christian historian Marmol, affirms “Badis Aben Habus” to have been a Moorish sultan of Granada, and that the weathercock was intended as a perpetual admonition of the instability of Moslem power, bearing the following words in Arabic:
“Thus Ibn Habus al badise predicts Andalus shall one day vanish and pass away.”[16]
Another version of this portentous inscription is given by a Moslem historian, on the authority of Sidi Hasan, a faquir who flourished about the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, and who was present at the taking down of the weathercock, when the old Kassaba was undergoing repairs.