ʿUmar about it and he told them to sell it if possible. The elephant was bought by a man from al-Ḥîrah who used to cover its back with a cloak and go round the villages exhibiting it. Sometime after that, umm-Aiyûb, daughter of ʿUmârah ibn-ʿUḳbah ibn-abi-Muʿaiṭ (who was the wife of al-Mughîrah ibn-Shuʿbah and later of Ziyâd) wanted to see the elephant as she was in her father's home. The elephant was brought before her and stood at the door of the mosque which is now termed Bâb al-Fîl. After looking at it, she gave its owner something and dismissed him. But no sooner had the elephant taken a few strides, than it fell dead. That is why the door was called Bâb al-Fîl.[1] Some say that the one who looked at it was the wife of al-Walîd ibn-ʿUḳbah ibn-abi-Muʿaiṭ; others that it was a sorcerer who made the people see an elephant appearing from the door riding on a donkey; still others that the trough of the mosque was brought on an elephant and passed through this door, which was for that reason called Bâb al-Fîl. These explanations are false. There are those who claim that the trough of the mosque was carried on an elephant and brought in through this door. Others think that an elephant owned by one of the governors once rushed against this door which was later called after it. The first explanation, however, is the most authentic.
Jabbânat Maimûn. According to abu-Masʿûd, the Maimûn cemetery at al-Kûfah was named after Maimûn, a freedman of Muḥammad ibn-ʿAli ibn-ʿAbdallâh, surnamed abu-Bishr, who built aṭ-Ṭâḳât[2] in Baghdâdh near Bâb ash-Shâm.[3]
