The first of the two devastations came after Solomon, while the second followed the time of Zechariah, John, and the Messiah—when they put to death John son of Zechariah, whom the People of the Book call Yuḥannā al-Maʿmadānī (John the Baptist).

Many who are regarded as scholars imagine that Bukht Naṣṣar (Nebuchadnezzar) was the ruler who marched on al-Shām when John son of Zechariah was killed. The specialists among the People of the Book, as well as informed Muslim scholars, consider this mistaken. What is mass-transmitted is that Bukht Naṣṣar was the conqueror on the first occasion.

In the same vein, the claim—spread by a faction of the uninformed—that the prophet Shuʿayb was Moses’ father-in-law is contradicted by the mass-transmitted reports held by the People of the Book and by Muslims from the Companions, the Followers, and others.

Moreover, among the Christians there are multiply attested accounts—preserved in their own narratives and in the records of their scholars and kings—containing matters unknown to Muslims and Jews; and among