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It is certainly not among the indispensable or unavoidable material for him to cite the report he attributes to Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, namely that Iblīs burrowed his way to the great fish upon whose back the whole earth rests, whispered into its heart and said, “Do you know, O Luthiyā, what nations, trees, beasts, human beings, and mountains lie upon your back? If you were to shake yourself, you would cast them all off!” Thereupon Luthiyā resolved to do exactly that, but Allah sent a small creature that entered the fish’s nostril; the fish cried out to Allah because of it, and the creature withdrew …

Nor is it indispensable to repeat the story that the serpent had been Adam’s servant in the Garden, yet betrayed him by allowing the enemy of Allah to use her and by exposing her enmity there; when they were made to descend, the enmity was confirmed and her sustenance was decreed to be dust.

Equally unnecessary is what he narrates on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that the Jews asked the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—about thunder, and he replied, “It is an angel who holds bolts of fire with which he drives the clouds wherever Allah wills.”

Nor is it indispensable to discuss the Dog of the Companions of the Cave, the disagreement over its color, or its name.

The same applies to what he transmits from al-Zuhrī concerning the verse, “who made the angels messengers, possessing wings, two, three, and four” (Q 35:1): that Gabriel, peace be upon him, said to him, “O Muḥammad, were you to behold Isrāfīl—you would see that he has twelve thousand wings, one stretching to the east and another to the west; the Throne rests upon his shoulders, yet at times he shrinks before the Majesty of Allah until he becomes like a small bird.”

Nor is it indispensable to include his statement regarding the words of the Exalted, “And on that Day eight will bear the Throne of your Lord above them” (Q 69:17): that above the seventh heaven there are eight mountain goats, the distance between their hooves and knees equal to the span between one heaven and the next, and that the Throne is upon their backs.