‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘what words are used in the formula of refuge and what are the variants?’ She replied: ‘Some say: “I take refuge with God, Who hears and knows, from Satan, the stoned” while others say: “I take refuge with God, the Omnipotent.” The best formula is that used in the glorious Quran and mentioned in tradition. The Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, when starting to recite the Quran, used to say: “I take refuge with God from Satan, the stoned.” It is reported by Nafi‘ on the authority of his father that when the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, got up to pray at night, he would say: “God is greater by far; abundant praise is owed to Him; glory be to God morning and evening.” He would then add: “I take refuge with God from Satan, the stoned, and the evil promptings of the devils.” It is reported that Ibn ‘Abbas, may God be pleased with him, said: “When Gabriel first visited the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, he taught him the formula of refuge and went on: ‘Muhammad, say: “I take refuge with God, Who hears and knows”; then say: “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” and then recite: “In the Name of your Lord, the Creator, Who has created man from a clot of blood.” ’ ” ’
When the Quranic scholar heard what she had to say, he was astonished at how eloquently she spoke and at the excellence of her knowledge. He then asked her whether God’s words ‘in the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’ constituted a verse of the Quran. ‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘it is a Quranic verse in the sura of the Ant, and also where it occurs as a division between two suras, although there is much dispute among the learned on this point.’ ‘Good,’ he said…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and forty-seventh night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when the girl answered the scholar and told him that there was much dispute among the learned with regard to the formula ‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’, he approved and said: ‘So tell me then why these words are not written at the start of the sura of Immunity.’ She replied: ‘When this sura was revealed, revoking the pact between the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, and the polytheists, the Prophet sent ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may God honour him, to them on a feast day taking with him this sura, and he recited it to them without the words “in the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful”.’ ‘Tell me then,’ he said, ‘of the merit of this formula and of the blessings that it brings.’ She replied: ‘It is reported that the Prophet of God, may God bless him and give him peace, said: “Whenever these words are recited over anything, a blessing is found in it” and also: “The Lord of glory has sworn by His glory that whenever these words are recited over a sick man, he will be cured of his sickness.” It is also reported that when God created the empyrean, it became violently disturbed, but when He wrote these words on it, it came to rest. When they were revealed to the Prophet, he said: “I am safe from three things – being swallowed up in the earth, being changed into a beast and being drowned.” In fact, their merits and blessings are so numerous that it would take a long time to go through them. It is reported that the Apostle of God, may God bless him and give him peace, said: “On the Day of Resurrection, a man will be brought before God and when, at His judgement, he is found to have done no good deed, he will be ordered to be thrown into hellfire. He will say: ‘My God, you have not treated me justly.’ God, Great and Glorious, will say: ‘Why is that?’ and the man will say: ‘You named Yourself the Compassionate, the Merciful, and yet You want to punish me with hellfire.’ The Glorious God will say: ‘I did name myself the Compassionate, the Merciful, so because of My mercy, take My servant to Paradise, for I am the most merciful of the merciful.’ ” ’
‘Good,’ he said, ‘and now tell me when these words were first used.’ She said: ‘When God first revealed the Quran, the scribes wrote: “In Your Name, O my God”; then, when He revealed the verse “say: ‘Call on God or call on the Compassionate; however you call on Him, His are the fairest of names,’ ” they wrote: “In the Name of God, the Compassionate.” Then, when the revelation “Your God is one God; there is no god but God, the Compassionate, the Merciful”* came, they wrote: “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” ’
When he heard this, the Quranic scholar silently bowed his head and said to himself: ‘This is something entirely extraordinary. How can this girl talk about the first usage of these words? By God, I must try to do something to get the better of her.’ So he said: ‘Girl, did God reveal the Quran in one piece or section by section?’ She said: ‘Gabriel, the Trusted, on whom be peace, brought it down from the Lord of all to His Prophet, Muhammad, lord of the apostles and seal of the prophets, with its commands, prohibitions, promises and warnings, histories and parables, over a period of twenty years in separate verses to match each occasion.’
‘Good,’ he said, ‘so tell me, what was the first sura revealed to the Apostle of God, may God bless him and grant him peace?’ ‘According to Ibn ‘Abbas,’ she told him, ‘this was the sura of Congealed Blood† but according to Jabir ibn Abd Allah it was the sura of the Covered,‡ after which the other suras and verses were revealed.’ ‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘which was the last verse to be revealed?’ ‘The verse dealing with usury,’ she said, ‘although it is also said to be the verse “At the coming of God’s aid and victory”.’§
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and forty-eighth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the girl told the scholar about the last verse of the Quran to be revealed. ‘Good,’ he said, ‘and now tell me how many of the companions of the Prophet collected the Quran in his lifetime.’ ‘There were four of them,’ she said. ‘’Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, Zaid ibn Thabit, Abu ‘Ubaida ‘Amir ibn Jarrah and ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, may God be pleased with them all.’ ‘Good,’ he said, ‘so tell me the names of the Quran reciters whose readings we follow.’ ‘There are four of them,’ she said. ‘ ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, Mu‘adh ibn Jabal and Salim ibn ‘Abd Allah.’ He then asked: ‘What do you have to say about God’s words “What is sacrificed to idols”?’* She said: ‘These are idols that are set up and worshipped in place of Almighty God, with Whom we take refuge.’ He asked: ‘And what do you have to say about His words “You know what is in my soul, but I do not know what is in Yours”?’ She replied: ‘This means “You know the truth about me and all that is mine, but I do not know what is Yours.” This is shown by His words “You know what is hidden”,† and it is also expressed as: “You know my essence, but I do not know Yours.” ’
‘What have you to say about His words “Believers, do not forbid yourselves the good things that God allows you”?’‡ he asked. She said: ‘My shaikh, may God have mercy on him, told me that al-Dahhak said that this refers to a group of Muslims who proposed to castrate themselves and wear sackcloth, as a result of which this verse was revealed. Qatada said that it was revealed after a number of the companions of the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, including ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, ‘Uthman ibn Mus‘ab and others, had thought of castrating themselves, wearing hair shirts and becoming monks.’ ‘What do you have to say about His words “And He took Abraham as a Friend”?’§ he asked. ‘The word for “friend” (khalil),’ she said, ‘means “needy and poor”, although according to another interpretation it means “a lover devoted to Almighty God, in whose devotion there is no defect”.’
When the Quranic scholar saw that she spoke as easily as clouds that pass, with no hesitation, he rose to his feet and said: ‘Commander of the Faithful, I bear witness before God that this girl knows more than I do about the readings of the Quran and other matters.’ At that she said: ‘Now I shall ask you one question; if you answer it, well and good, but if not, then take off your robe.’ ‘Put the question to him,’ said the caliph, and she then a
sked: ‘Which Quranic verse contains twenty-three instances of the letter kaf, which has sixteen mims, which has a hundred and forty ‘ains and which portion of the Quran does not contain the formula covering the sublimity of God?’ The scholar was unable to answer and had to obey when she told him to take off his cloak. She then explained to the caliph that the verse with the sixteen mims is found in the sura of Hud, in God’s words ‘Noah, come down from the ark in Our peace, and blessings be upon you’, and so on until the end of the verse.* The verse with the twenty-three kafs is the verse of Debt in the sura of the Cow;† while the hundred and forty ‘ains are found in the sura al-A‘raf, in God’s words ‘Moses chose seventy men from his people to go at the appointed time’,‡ for each man had two eyes (‘ain).§ ‘The portion that does not contain the formula of sublimity is found in the sura “The hour draws near and the moon has been split”, the sura of the Merciful and the sura of the Happening.’ At that, the scholar removed his robe and left the room abashed.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and forty-ninth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the girl got the better of the scholar and took his robes, after which he left abashed.
At this point, the skilled doctor came forward and said to Tawaddud: ‘We have finished with theology, so get ready to deal with what concerns the human body. Tell me, then, about man and how he is created; how many veins, bones and vertebrae does he have? Where is the principal vein and why was Adam called Adam?’ She replied: ‘Adam was called Adam because of his brown colour,¶ or an alternative suggestion is that he was created from the surface** of the earth. His breast was made from the earth of the Ka‘ba, his head from that of the east and his legs from that of the west. His head was furnished with seven portals: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and a mouth. He had two other passages, one in front and one behind. The eyes served the sense of sight, the ears that of hearing, the nostrils that of smell and the mouth that of taste, while the tongue was created to express what was in his mind. He was compounded of four elements: water, earth, fire and air. Yellow bile is the natural constituent of fire and is hot and dry; black bile is the natural constituent of earth and is cold and dry; phlegm is the natural constituent of water and is cold and moist; while blood is the natural constituent of air and is hot and moist.
‘A man has three hundred and sixty veins, two hundred and forty bones and three vital parts – the animal soul, the spiritual soul and the natural soul, each of which exercises a function of its own. God gave man a heart, spleen, lungs, six intestines, a liver, two kidneys, two buttocks, brain, bones, skin and five senses – hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. The heart was set in the left of the breast, with the stomach in front of it. The lungs act as a fan for the heart and the liver is set opposite it on the right-hand side. God then created the diaphragm and the intestines that lie below, and He produced the bones of the chest with their grid of ribs.’
‘Good,’ said the doctor, ‘and now tell me how many hollow chambers there are in the brain.’ ‘Three,’ she said, ‘comprising five faculties known as the inner senses, that is, the sensus communis, imagination, the controlling intellect, the power of fantasy and that of memory.’ ‘Good,’ he said, ‘and so tell me about the structure of the bones.’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and fiftieth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the doctor asked Tawaddud to tell him about the structure of the bones. She said: ‘This structure comprises two hundred and forty bones, divided into three sections – the head, the torso and the limbs. The head comprises the cranium and the face. The cranium is composed of eight bones, to which are added the four connected with the ears. The face has an upper and a lower jaw, with eleven bones in the upper and one in the lower. Added to these are the thirty-two teeth, together with the hyoid bone. As for the torso, it comprises the spinal column, the chest and the pelvis. The spinal column is made up of twenty-four bones known as vertebrae; the chest has the breastbone and twenty-four ribs, twelve on each side; and the pelvis has the two hip bones, the sacrum and the coccyx. The limbs are divided into upper and lower limbs. Each of the upper limbs is divided in its turn: firstly, into a shoulder, made up of a shoulder blade and a clavicle; secondly, into an upper arm consisting of a single bone; thirdly, into a forearm, which has two bones – the radius and the ulna; and fourthly, a hand, divided into wrist, metacarpus and fingers. The wrist is composed of eight bones set in two rows, with four in each row. The metacarpus has five bones, and the five fingers have three bones each, known as the phalanges, except for the thumb, which has only two. Each of the lower limbs is divided, firstly into the thigh, which consists of a single bone; then the shank, comprising three bones, the fibula, the shin bone and the knee bone; and thirdly, there is the foot, which is divided, like the hand, into the ankle, the instep and the toes. The ankle has seven bones set in two rows, the first with two bones and the second with five. The instep has five bones, and each of the five toes has three phalanges, except for the big toe, which has only two.’
‘Good,’ said the doctor, ‘so tell me about the root of the veins.’ She replied: ‘The veins branch off from their root, the aorta, and no one knows how many there are except for their Creator, although there are claimed to be three hundred and sixty, as has already been said. God has set the tongue as an interpreter, the eyes as lamps, the nostrils as organs of smell, and the hands in place of wings. The liver is the seat of mercy, the spleen is the seat of laughter and the kidneys of guile, while the lungs are a fan, the stomach a storehouse and the heart is the body’s buttress. When the heart is sound, the whole body is sound, and when it is disordered, so is the whole body.’
‘Tell me, then,’ said the doctor, ‘of the external signs and symptoms of disease both in the external and internal organs.’ ‘Certainly,’ she said. ‘The knowledgeable doctor examines the condition of the body and by feeling the hands he draws his conclusion from their firmness, heat, dryness, coldness and dampness. He can find indications of concealed diseases in what is apparent to the senses. For instance, yellowness of the eyeball is a sign of jaundice, while a curved spine can indicate lung disease.’ ‘Good,’ the doctor said…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and fifty-first night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the doctor approved of what Tawaddud said about the external signs.
‘But what are the internal signs?’ She replied: ‘To identify diseases by internal signs, one must look at six points: the first being actions; the second, what is excreted from the body; the third, pain; the fourth, the place affected; the fifth, swellings; and the sixth, the effluvia.’ Then he said: ‘What harms the head?’ ‘Eating food on top of undigested food,’ she said, ‘and stuffing oneself after having already stuffed oneself, for this has destroyed whole peoples. Whoever wants a long life should take an early breakfast and not have his evening meal too late. He should not overindulge in sexual intercourse, and he must limit his use of potentially dangerous measures, that is, he should not often be bled or cupped. He should divide his stomach into three parts – one for food, one for water and one for breath. Human intestines are eighteen spans in length, of which six should be devoted to food, six to water and six for breath. It is better for him and more suitable for his body to walk at an easy pace, and this is in accordance with God’s words “Do not walk proudly on the earth.” ’*
‘Good,’ he said, ‘so now tell me the symptoms of yellow bile and what is to be feared from it.’ She replied: ‘It is to be recognized by a yellow complexion, bitterness in the mouth, dryness, a weakness of sexual appetite and a rapid pulse. Those who suffer from it are at risk of burning fevers, brain disease, carbuncles, jaundice, swellings, intestinal
ulcers and extreme thirst.’ ‘Good,’ he said, ‘so tell me the symptoms of black bile and what is to be feared from it when it takes over the body.’ She replied: ‘It produces a delusive appetite, folly, anxiety and worries. It needs to be drained off or else it will lead to melancholy, leprosy, cancer, pains in the spleen and ulcerations in the intestines.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Now tell me into how many parts medicine is divided.’ ‘Into two,’ she answered, ‘of which one concerns the treatment of sick bodies and the second the methods by which they can be restored to health.’ ‘Tell me then,’ he said, ‘when is the most efficacious time in which to drink medicinal draughts?’ She replied: ‘It is when the sap rises in the wood, grapes form on their clusters and the stars of good omen rise, for this marks a time that is useful for the taking of draughts and the repelling of diseases.’ He then said: ‘Tell me, when a man drinks from a new container, at what time will his drink be pleasanter and more wholesome and a clean and sweet odour rise up for him.’ She answered: ‘This will happen if he waits for a time after eating. The poet has said:
Do not be in a hurry to drink after you eat,
As this will bring your body to harm.
Wait for a little while when you have eaten
And then perhaps you will get what you want.’
‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘about the type of food which does not produce any sickness.’ She replied: ‘This is food that is only eaten when the eater is hungry and which does not fill the ribs. The wise Galen said that whoever wants to take food will not go wrong if he eats slowly. Let me finish by quoting from the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace: “The stomach is the centre of disease and dieting is the principal cure. Every disease starts with indigestion, that is, what is produced by unsuitable food.” ’
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2 Page 38
