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three thousand and six hundred and seventy letters; and to the reader thereof, for every letter, accrue ten benefits. Night ccccxlvi The acts of prostration it contains are fourteen in number, and five-and-twenty prophets are named therein, to wit, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Elisha, Jonah, Lot, Salih, Houd,[1] Shuaib,[2] David, Solomon, Dhoulkifl,[3] Idris,[4] Elias, Yehya,[5] Zacharias, Job, Moses, Aaron, Jesus and Mohammed, the peace of God and His blessing be on them all! Moreover, nine birds [or flying things] are mentioned in the Koran, namely, the gnat, the bee, the fly, the ant, the hoopoe, the crow, the locust, the bustard and the bird of Jesus[6] (on whom be peace), to wit, the bat.’ (Q.) ‘Which is the most excellent chapter of the Koran?’ (A.) ‘That of the Cow.’[7] (Q.) ‘Which is the most magnificent verse?’ (A.) ‘That of the Throne;[8] it has fifty words, in each fifty blessings.’ (Q.) ‘What verse hath in it nine signs [or wonders]?’ (A.) ‘That in which quoth God the Most High, “Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day and the ship that runneth in the sea with what profiteth mankind and in what God sendeth down from heaven of water and quickeneth therewith the earth, after its dearth, and spreadeth abroad therein all manner cattle, and the shifting of the winds and the clouds, pressed into service
- ↑ Heber.
- ↑ Jethro.
- ↑ Joshua.
- ↑ Enoch.
- ↑ John the Baptist.
- ↑ i.e. the bird of clay fabled by the Koran (following the Apocryphal Gospel of the childhood of Christ) to have been animated by him.
- ↑ Koran ii.
- ↑ Koran ii. 256, “God, there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal. Slumber taketh him not, neither sleep, and His is what is in the heavens and what is in the earth. Who is he that intercedeth with Him but by His leave? He knoweth what is before them and what is behind them, nor do they comprehend aught of the knowledge of Him but of what He willeth. His throne embraceth the heavens and the earth and the guarding of them oppresseth Him not, for He is the Most High, the Supreme.”
