ABSTRACT
Examining Masā’il Abdallāh Ibn Salām, a text composed between the ninth and tenth century CE, and presented as a dialogue between the Prophet Muhammad and a learned Jew from Ḫaybar, Ishmāwīl, in which Ishmāwīl asks the Prophet a series of questions from the creation of the world to the Last Judgment, this article focuses on questions relating to corporeality vs. incorporeality, the senses, sexuality, and gender. These themes are used by the writer of the Masā’il not merely to discuss corporeality and sexuality as such, but transforms these topics into a medium by which to evoke the transcendent, unspeakable aspect of the divine, and of heavenly denizens, such as angels.
