dina, where a strong impression had been created in his favour by some converts.
In the twelfth year, the singular story was fabricated of his pretended[1] journey from
- ↑ Not having Abul-feda’s work to refer to, I am indebted to Dr. Prideaux for the following account of the Night Journey. Gibbon says Abul-feda wishes to think it a vision, that Prideaux aggravates the absurdities, and Gagnier declares from the zealous Al Jannabi, that to deny this journey, is to disbelieve the Koran.
In the 12th year of his pretended mission, is placed the Mesra, that is, his famous night-journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to Heaven, of which he tells us in the 17th chapter of his Alcoran. For the people calling on him for miracles ta prove his mission, and he being able to work none, to solve the matter, he invents this story of his journey to Heaven, which must be acknowledged to have miracle enough in it, by all those who have faith to believe it. His relation of it is as followeth. At night, as he lay in his bed with his best beloved wife Ayesha, he heard a knocking at his door, whereon arising, he found there the angel Gabriel with seventy pair of wings expanded from his sides, whiter than show and clearer than crystal, and the beast Alborak standing by him, which they say is the beast on which the prophets used to ride, when they were carried from one place to another, upon the execution of any Divine command. Mahomet describes it to be a beast as white as milk, and of a mixed nature between an ass and a mule, and also of a size between both, and of that extraordinary swiftness, that his passing from
