Ibn Isḥāq¹ relates: I was informed that Quraysh found, embedded in the Corner, a writing in Syriac. They did not know what it meant until a Jewish man read it for them. It stated:
“I am Allah, the Lord of Bakkah. I created it on the day I created the heavens and the earth; I fashioned the sun and the moon, and I encircled it with seven upright angels. It shall not cease to stand until its two rugged heights disappear—”
Ibn Hishām comments: meaning, its two mountains—“—and it is blessed for its people in water and milk.”
Ibn Isḥāq continues²: I was also told that they found, in the Station, a writing that read: “Makkah—the Sacred House of Allah—its provision shall come to it by three avenues. The first of its inhabitants must not violate its sanctity.”³
He further said⁴: Layth ibn Abī Sulaym⁵ claimed that, forty years before the Prophet’s mission, they discovered a stone inside the Kaʿbah—if what is reported is true—on which was written:
“Whoever sows good reaps delight; whoever sows evil reaps remorse. Do you commit sins and expect to receive good in return? Never! Just as grapes are not gathered from thorns.”⁶
Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā al-Umawī reports: Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishr al-Raqī, from al-Zuhrī—traced back to the Prophet ﷺ—who said:
“In the Station three tablets were found. On the first tablet was written:
‘I am Allah, the Lord of Bakkah. I fashioned it on the day I fashioned the sun and the moon; I surrounded it with seven upright angels, and I blessed its people in meat and milk.’
On the second tablet:
‘I am Allah, the Lord of Bakkah. I created the womb (raḥim) and derived its name from My own; whoever maintains it I shall maintain, and whoever severs it I shall sever.’
On the third tablet:
‘I am Allah, the Lord of Bakkah. I created good and evil and decreed them. Glad tidings to the one through whose hands I cause good to flow, and woe to the one through whose hands I cause evil to flow.’ ”
Ibn Isḥāq goes on⁸: The clans of Quraysh then gathered stones for the rebuilding, each clan collecting on its own. They continued building until they reached the place of the Corner, whereupon a dispute broke out—every clan insisted that it, and no other, should raise it to its position.