…than the many deaths I would otherwise suffer."

One day he relented toward me and ordered me to leave. I went out to my companions and said, “Carry on with what you have planned.” While they were standing at the gate consulting, Aswad suddenly appeared. He had brought together one hundred head of livestock—cows and camels. Stepping forward, he drew a line on the ground; the animals were driven to stand behind it while he remained outside it. He then slaughtered them, neither hobbling nor tying a single one. Not an animal crossed the line; they milled about until their souls departed.

Qays said, “I have never witnessed anything more horrifying, nor a day more dreadful, than that.”

Aswad then asked, “Is what has reached me about you true, Fayruz? I was on the point of slaughtering you and sending you after these beasts,” and he brandished his spear.

Fayruz replied, “You chose us because we are your in-laws and you preferred us over your own children. Even if you were not a prophet, we would never trade our share in you for anything—how much more now that both our worldly and other-worldly affairs are bound up with you! Do not listen to such reports about us; we are exactly as you wish.” Aswad was satisfied with him and ordered him to distribute the meat of those animals. Fayruz divided it among the people of Ṣanʿāʾ and then hurried back to Aswad.

There he found a man inciting Aswad against him, and Fayruz listened while the man spoke. He heard Aswad say, “Tomorrow I shall kill him and his companions—bring him to me in the morning.” Aswad then turned and saw Fayruz.

“Enough,” he said. Fayruz explained how he had distributed the meat, after which Aswad entered his house. Fayruz returned to his companions and told them everything he had heard and all that had been said. They agreed to approach Aswad’s wife again. One of them—Fayruz—went in to her, and she said:

“Every room in the house is ringed with guards except this one; its rear wall opens onto such-and-such a road. When evening comes, tunnel through it from the side away from the guards. Nothing now stands between you and killing him. I shall place a lamp and weapons inside.”

When Fayruz left her, Aswad met him and demanded, “What made you go in to my house?”—then jabbed him on the head, for Aswad was a harsh man. The woman screamed, distracting him; otherwise he would have killed Fayruz.

She said, “My cousin came to visit me.”

“Silence—may you lose your father! I have spared him for your sake,” he replied.

Fayruz went out to his companions and cried, “Flee, flee!” He told them what had happened, and they were unsure how to proceed.

The woman then sent word: “Do not turn back from what you had resolved.” Fayruz al-Daylamī went in to her again and confirmed the plan. They entered that room, dug away its inner lining so the breach from outside would be easier, and then Fayruz sat openly with her as a visitor.

Aswad came in and said, “What is this?”

She answered, “This is my foster-brother and my cousin.” He scolded her and drove Fayruz out, who then returned to his companions.

When night fell, they tunneled through the wall, entered, and found a lamp beneath a large bowl. Fayruz al-Daylamī advanced. Aswad was lying drunk on a silk mattress, his head sunk into his shoulders, snoring, while the woman sat beside him. As Fayruz reached the doorway, Aswad’s shayṭān (demon) made him sit upright and speak through his mouth, though he was still snoring:

“What is there between you and me, Fayruz?”

Fayruz feared that if he withdrew he and the woman would perish, so he rushed at him and grappled with him. Aswad was like a camel; Fayruz seized his head, snapped his neck, and pressed his knees into his back until he killed him. He then rose to go out and inform his companions.

The woman caught the edge of his garment and said, “Where are you going, abandoning your sanctuary?”—thinking he had not yet killed him.

“I am going out to tell them he is dead,” he said. They came in to sever his head. As his shayṭān stirred him, he thrashed about; they could not subdue him until two of them sat on his back, the woman took hold of his hair, and the other cut off his head. He bellowed with a roar louder than any bull ever heard. The guards rushed to the pavilion crying, “What is this? What is this?”

The woman said, “The Prophet is receiving revelation.” So they turned back. Qays, Dādūyah, and Fayruz then sat together, plotting how to inform their supporters. They agreed that at daybreak they would call out the watchword known between them and the Muslims. When dawn broke, one of them arose…