Her neck-strap is massive, and the fetter round her ankles just as broad; in stature she surpasses every daughter of noble sires.

Broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, high-humped and forceful: her girth is wide, her forepart tilts forward in eagerness.

Her hide is like polished basalt that would weary any hewer; between her twin back-ridges even a talḥ (acacia) would wither from want of life.

Her sire and her brother spring from the choicest, well-bred stock, and her uncles—paternal and maternal—are tall, commanding racers.

The tale-bearers hurry about with their whispering and their gossip: “Son of Abū Salmā, you are surely to be killed!”

Every friend on whom I had set my hopes said, “I cannot help you; I have matters of my own.”

Clear the way before her forelegs—shame on you!—for whatever the All-Merciful has decreed will surely come to pass.

Every child of a woman, though his safety be prolonged, will one day be borne hump-backed upon the shoulders of his people.

I have been told that the Messenger of Allah has threatened me—yet pardon from the Messenger of Allah is what I hope for.

Gently, O Messenger of Allah, you to whom the additional gift of the Qur’an was granted, a Book filled with admonitions and detailed explanations.

Do not seize me for what the slanderers say; I have committed no offence, though accusations against me abound.

I now stand in a situation that, were an elephant to stand in it, it would see and hear what would make it quake.

It would keep on trembling unless, from the Messenger—by Allah’s leave—it received some gracious bounty.

So I laid my right hand, without resistance, in the hand of one whose very word exacts retribution.

For that reason I fear all the more when I address him, for people say, “You will be deemed accountable and questioned.”

He is a lion among the lions of the forest; his lair lies in a rugged valley, with ravine upon ravine before it.

Truly, the Messenger is a light by which guidance is sought, a keen blade—one of Allah’s swords—unsheathed.

He is surrounded by young men of Quraysh, whose spokesman proclaimed in the heart of Mecca, when they embraced Islam: “Make way!”