Abdullah Son Of Abi Kilabah.
It is related that Abdullah bin Abi Kilabah went forth in quest of a she camel which had strayed from him; and, as he was wandering in the deserts of Al-Yaman and the district of Saba, behold, he came upon a great city girt by a vast castle around which were palaces and pavilions that rose high into middle air. He made for the place thinking to find there folk of whom he might ask concerning his she camel; but, when he reached it, he found it desolate, without a living soul in it. So (He said) "I alighted and, hobbling my dromedary,"—
When it was the Two Hundred and Seventy sixth night
The City of Many Columned Iram 115
When it was the Two Hundred and Seventy seventh night
When it was the Two Hundred and Seventy eighth night
whereupon the King rejoined, "Fare you then to the mines of chrysolites and rubies and pearls and gold and silver and collect their produce and gather together all of value that is in the world and spare no pains and leave nothing; and take also for me such of these things as be in men's hands and let nothing escape you: be diligent and beware of disobedience." And thereupon he wrote letters to all the Kings of the world and bade them gather together whatever of these things was in their subjects' hands, and get them to the mines of precious stones and metals, and bring forth all that was within it, even from the abysses of the seas. This they accomplished in the space of 20 years for the number of rulers then reigning over the earth was three hundred and sixty Kings; and Shaddad presently assembled from all lands and countries architects and engineers and men of art and labourers and handicraftsmen, who dispersed over the world and explored all the wastes and wolds and tracts and holds. At came to an uninhabited spot, a vast and fair open plain clear of sand hills and mountains, with founts flushing and rivers rushing, and they said,
The City of Many Columned Iram 117
"This is the manner of place the King commanded us to seek and ordered us to find." So they busied themselves in building the city even as bade them Shaddad, King of the whole earth in its length and breadth; leading the fountains in channels and laying the foundations after the prescribed fashion. Moreover, all the Kings of earth's several reigns sent there jewels and precious stones and pearls large and small and carnelian and refined gold and virgin silver upon camels by land, and in great ships over the waters, and there came to the builders' hands of all these materials so great a quantity as may neither be told nor counted nor conceived. So they laboured at the work three hundred years; and, when they had brought it to end, they went to King Shaddad and acquainted him therewith. Then He said, "Depart and make thereon an impregnable castle, rising and towering high in air, and build around it a thousand pavilions, each upon a thousand columns of chrysolite and ruby and vaulted with gold, that in each pavilion a Wazir may dwell." So they returned immediately and did this in other twenty years, after which they again presented themselves before King Shaddad and informed him of the accomplishment of his will. Then he commanded his Wazirs, who were a thousand in number, and his Chief Officers and such of his troops and others as he put trust in, to prepare for departure and removal to Many columned Iram, in the suite and at the stirrup of Shaddad, son of Ad, King of the World; and he bade also such as he would of his women and his Harim and of his handmaids and eunuchs make them ready for the journey. They spent twenty years in preparing for departure, at the end of which time Shaddad set out with his host.—
When it was the Two Hundred and Seventy ninth night
Has any mortal ever made his way to that city?" He replied, "Yes; one of the companions of Mohammed (on whom be blessing and peace!) reached it, doubtless and forsure after the same fashion as this man here seated." "And (Said Al-Sha'abi ) it is related, on the authority of learned men of Himyar in al-Yaman that Shaddad, when destroyed with all his host by the sound, was succeeded in his Kingship by his son Shaddad the Less, whom he left vice regent in Hazramaut and Saba, when he and his marched upon Many columned Iram. Now as soon as he heard of his father's death on the road, he caused his body to be brought back from the desert to Hazramaut and bade them hew him out a tomb in a cave, where he laid the body on a throne of gold and threw over the corpse threescore and ten robes of cloth of gold, purfled with precious stones. Lastly at his sire's head he set up a tablet of gold on which were graven these verses,
'Take warning O proud, And in length o' life vain! I'm Shaddad son of Ad, Of the forts castellain Lord of pillars and power, Lord of tried might and main, Whom all earth sons obeyed For my mischief and bane And who held East and West In my awfullest reign. He preached me salvation Whom God did assain, But we crossed him and asked 'Can no refuge be ta'en?' When a Cry on us cried From th' horizon plain, And we fell on the field Like the harvested grain, And the Fixt Day await We, in earth's bosom lain!' "
Isaac of Mosul 119
Al-Sa'alibi also relats, "It chanced that two men once entered this cave and found steps at its upper end; so they descended and came to an underground chamber, an hundred cubits long by forty wide and an hundred high. In the midst stood a throne of gold, on which lay a man of huge bulk, filling the whole length and breadth of the throne. He was covered with jewels and raiment gold and silver wrought, and at his head was a tablet of gold bearing an inscription. So they took the tablet and carried it off, together with as many bars of gold and silver and so forth as they could bear away." And men also relate the tale of