that no one had ever stripped the enemy of its possessions the way he did ⦗1⦘; through him the people of the Maghrib accepted Islam, and he spread among them the religion and the Qur’an. Whenever he travelled, the money had to be loaded onto wagons because of its sheer abundance, for the beasts of burden could not carry it.
[Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr was conquering in the western lands while Qutaybah was conquering in the east—may Allah reward them both. Each of them opened up many provinces and cities, yet Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr attained things Qutaybah never did. It is related that when he conquered al-Andalus, a man came to him and said, “Send some men with me and I will show you a tremendous treasure.” He therefore dispatched a detachment with the man, who led them to a spot and said, “Dig here.” They dug until they broke into a vast chamber with two handsome porticoes. There they found rubies, jewels, and emeralds that left them speechless; as for the gold, it was beyond description. In that place they also discovered carpets—one carpet woven with rods of gold and strung with rare, magnificent pearls, another carpet studded with priceless gems, and rubies the like of which had never been seen for beauty and perfection.
That same day they heard a caller, whose form they could not see, proclaiming, “People, a gate of Hellfire has been opened against you, so beware!” It was further said that among the treasure they found the Table of Solomon son of David upon which he used to eat.]⦗2⦘
A descendant of his—Abū Muʿāwiya Maʿārik ibn Marwān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān ibn Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr al-Nuṣayrī—compiled the accounts of his life and the events of his battles and expeditions.
The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir relates ⦗3⦘ that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz once asked Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, when he arrived in Damascus during the reign of al-Walīd, about the most astonishing thing he had seen at sea. He replied: “We reached an island on one occasion where there were sixteen green jars sealed with the seal of Solomon son of David (may Allah have mercy on him). I ordered that four of them be brought out and that one of them be pierced open. A devil emerged, shaking his head and saying, ‘By Him Who honoured you with prophethood, I shall never again return to corrupt the earth.’ The devil then looked about and said, ‘I see none of Solomon’s splendour and dominion,’ whereupon he sank into the earth and disappeared. I then ordered that the remaining three jars be returned to their place.”
[Al-Samʿānī and others report that he advanced to the City of Brass near the Green Encircling Ocean at the farthest edge of the Maghrib. When they first beheld it, they could see the gleam of its battlements and walls from a great distance. Upon reaching it they encamped, and he sent one of his men with a hundred valiant horsemen, instructing him to ride around the wall and see whether it possessed any gate or opening. It is said that the man rode for a day and a night around the wall, then returned and informed him that he had found neither gate nor aperture. Mūsā then ordered them to pile all their gear one piece upon another, yet even so they could not reach the top…]