ABSTRACT
W e presented ourselves forthwith at the Sanctuary of God Most High within her, the place of abode of His Friend Ibrāhīm and scene of mission of His Chosen One, Muḥammad (God bless and give him peace). We entered the illustrious Holy House, wherein ‘he who enters is secure’, 1 by | the gate of the Banū Shaiba and saw before our eyes the illustrious Ka‘ba (God increase it in veneration), like a bride who is displayed upon the bridal-chair of majesty, and walks with proud step in the mantles of beauty, surrounded by the companies which had come to pay homage to the God of Mercy, and being conducted to the Garden of Eternal Bliss. We made around it the [seven-fold] circuit of arrival and kissed the holy Stone; we performed a prayer of two bowings at the Maqām Ibrahīm and clung to the curtains of the Ka‘ba at the Multazam 2 between the door and the Black Stone, where prayer is answered; we drank of the water of Zamzam, 3 which, being drunk of, possesses the qualities which are related in the Tradition handed down from the Prophet (God bless and give him peace); then, having run between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwa, 4 we took up our lodging there in a house near the Gate of Ibrāhīm. Praise be to God, Who hath honoured us by visitation to this holy House, | and hath caused us to be numbered amongst those included in the 189prayer of al-Khalīl (blessing and peace upon him), 5 and hath rejoiced our eyes by the vision of the illustrious Ka‘ba and the honourable House, of the holy Stone, of Zamzam and the Ḥaṭīm. 6
