—by Salman ibn Rabiʿah, who fought on beneath it. A herald then called out from the sky: “Steadfast, O house of Salman ibn Rabiʿah!” So he fought with great valor. After a time Salman and Abū Hurayrah drew the Muslims together and withdrew; they fled before the multitude of Turks and the deadly accuracy of their arrows, making for Gilān and crossing it into Jurjān. The Turks grew bolder thereafter, and they took ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabiʿah, buried him in their own land, and to this day they seek rain by means of his grave. All of this will be related in detail later.

The Story of the Barrier

Ibn Jarīr relates ⦗1⦘ with his chain of transmission that when Shahrbarāz met ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabiʿah on his arrival at al-Bāb, he presented a man to him and said:

“O commander, I once dispatched this man toward the Barrier. I supplied him with a large sum of money, wrote letters on his behalf to the kings directly adjacent to me ⦗2⦘, sent them gifts, and asked them to write in turn to the kings beyond them, until he should reach the Barrier of Dhū al-Qarnayn, examine it, and bring us news. He travelled on until he reached the king in whose territory the Barrier stands. That king referred him to his governor on the Barrier’s flank, who sent with him his baziyār ⦗3⦘ together with his eagle.

“When they reached the Barrier, they beheld two mountains with a solid rampart built between them, rising to the summits of both. In front of the rampart lay a trench darker than night because of its depth. He studied the whole structure carefully. When he prepared to leave, the baziyār said, ‘Wait,’ opened a piece of meat he had brought, and tossed it into the air ⦗4⦘; the eagle swooped after it.

“He said, ‘If the bird catches it before it falls, it is nothing ⦗5⦘; but if it does not catch it until it settles, that is something.’ The eagle did not seize it until it fell to the bottom. It followed it down, took it up, and when it returned the meat there was a ruby inside it—this very one. The king handed it to Shahrbarāz, who passed it to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabiʿah. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān examined it and then returned it.

“When he did so, the king rejoiced and said, ‘By Allah, this gem is better than the kingdom of this city’—meaning the city of Bāb al-Abwāb in which he lived—‘and, by Allah, you are dearer to me today than the kingdom of the house of Chosroes. Had I been under their rule and they learned ⦗6⦘ of it, they would have taken it from me. By Allah, nothing will prevail over you so long as you honor your pledges and your great king keeps his.’

“ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabiʿah then turned to the messenger who had visited the Barrier and asked, ‘What is the state of that rampart—what does it look like?’ The man pointed to a cloth streaked with blue and red and said, ‘Like this.’

“A man remarked to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, ‘He has spoken the truth, by Allah; he truly reached it and saw it.’ (He replied, ‘Indeed.’) The man had described the smooth surface of iron and copper, just as Allah the Exalted says:

‘Bring me ingots of iron until, when he had levelled between the two cliffs, he said, “Blow!” Then, when he had made it a fire, he said, “Bring me molten copper that I may pour over it.”’ (Sūrat al-Kahf 18:96).