about one parasang. A further group were carried by devils from the city of Tadmur (Palmyra) to Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem). The devils instructed them to pray facing north, and they did so for several days, telling them that this Sacred Law would soon be altered and abrogated. Eventually the Muslims tracked them down at the congregational mosque of Tadmur—though they had been hiding in a cave—summoned them, and urged them to repent. They refused, persisting in their north-facing prayer for three more days; only afterward did they repent, once it became clear that the entire affair had been instigated by Satan.

In another incident, a man joined a group who were dancing during a samāʿ session and began to dance in mid-air above their heads. Someone noticed him and shouted, causing him to fall. This took place in the presence of Shaykh Shabīb al-Shattī, who remarked, “This has stripped me of my spiritual state.” When asked to explain, he replied, “The man had no spiritual state at all; it was only a devil that carried him from al-Raḥba to this spot. When I cried out at it, the devil dropped him and fled.” Similar stories have happened to more than one person.

Among the Turks it is widely and recurrently reported that their magicians and soothsayers perform feats known as al-Bakhshiyya and al-Ṭawiniyya, under the leadership of their figure called al-Bawā. Their custom stipulates that he must be an effeminate catamite—one who is passively sodomized. They set up a pavilion for him in darkness, slaughter a sacrifice to Satan, and sing for him. Devils then appear, converse with them about certain unseen matters—such as the conditions of absentees, thefts, and the like—and lift al-Bawā up, suspending him visibly in the air. At such times no Muslim is present among them, nor is there any book containing the Qur’an. This practice remains well known among them to this very day; several reliable people have informed us of it.