and Mount al-Fatḥ; likewise in Aswān, Egypt; in various mountains of the Byzantine lands and Khurāsān; in the ranges of al-Jazīrah; and in many other places—such as Mount al-Lakām, Mount al-Aḥīsh, Mount Sūlān near Ardabīl, Mount Shahnak by Tabrīz, Mount Māshkū at Ātchuwān, Mount Nahāwand, and other heights where some people suppose that pious human saints dwell.

They call these supposed dwellers “the Men of the Unseen,” yet in truth they are men of the jinn, for the jinn are called “men” just as human beings are. Allah Most High says: “And there were men from humankind who sought refuge with men from the jinn, but they only increased them in burden” (Qur’an 72:6).

Some of these jinn appear in the form of a shaggy creature whose skin resembles that of a goat; anyone unfamiliar with him assumes he is human, whereas he is in fact a jinn.

People also claim that on each of these mountains reside the forty Abdal. Those whom they suppose to be the Abdal are actually jinn inhabiting the mountains, as can be established by several means.

This is a subject too extensive to expand upon here or to recount all that we know of it, for we have seen and heard matters whose description would far exceed the scope of this brief treatise, which was written in response to one who requested a concise account of the friends of Allah.

[The Categories of People Regarding Extraordinary Phenomena]

People’s views on extraordinary occurrences fall into three categories. One group denies that such events happen for anyone other than the prophets, though they may accept them in a general sense;