In the same year Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, the governor of the Maghrib, removed his client and freedman Ṭāriq from command in al-Andalus. Ṭāriq had already marched on the city of Ṭulayṭula (Toledo), captured it, and there discovered the Table of Solomon son of David (may Allah grant him peace). It was laden with an extraordinary quantity of gold and precious stones. They dispatched it to al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, but it did not reach him before he died and the caliphate passed to his brother Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. The table was therefore presented to Sulaymān, as will be detailed in its proper place ⦗1⦘.

[Its splendor amazed the mind; no eye had ever seen anything lovelier.

Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr then appointed in Ṭāriq’s stead his own son ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr.

That same year Mūsā sent out armies and scattered them across the Maghrib. They captured many cities of the Andalusian peninsula, among them Qurṭubah (Córdoba) and Ṭulayṭula ⦗2⦘. Mūsā himself then advanced to the western reaches of al-Andalus, conquering the city of Bāja, the White City, and other great towns and provinces, along with a vast number of villages and rural districts. He never left a town until he had taken it or its people had submitted to his judgment. He dispatched expeditions and raiding parties to the west, east, and north, so that they conquered the Maghrib region by region, province by province, seizing wealth and taking women and children captive. Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr returned laden with booty, money, and gifts beyond counting ⦗3⦘.]

That same year the people of Ifrīqiyah were stricken by a grievous drought. Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr led them out to seek rain (istisqāʾ). He continued supplicating until midday. When he was about to step down from the pulpit someone said to him, “Will you not pray for the Commander of the Faithful?” He replied, “This is not the place for that.” Thereupon Allah sent them a plentiful, drenching rain ⦗4⦘.

In this year as well, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, acting on al-Walīd’s orders, flogged Khubayb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr with fifty lashes, poured a waterskin of cold water over his head on a bitter winter’s day, and left him standing at the mosque gate for the whole day, whereupon he died—may Allah have mercy upon him.

[After Khubayb’s death ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz lived in intense fear, never feeling secure. Whenever he was given good news about the Hereafter he would say, “And how can that be, when Khubayb awaits me on the road?” In another version he said, “That is, if Khubayb is not standing in the way.”]