On the fifth of the month, (1) the earth shook with a violent tremor until the minaret of the mosque rocked against itself, (2) and a tremendous creaking was heard from the mosque roof. The people were struck with fear for their sins. The earthquake quieted after dawn on Friday and lasted until just before noon. Then, in the ḥarra beyond Qurayẓah, along the road to al-Suwāriqiyyah at al-Maqāʿid—about the distance one can travel from daybreak to midday—a great fire burst out of the ground. The people were seized with overwhelming terror. (3)

A vast column of smoke then rose from it into the sky, coiling until it hung like a white cloud, and it remained so until shortly before sunset that Friday. (4) After this, tongues of flame shot upward into the air to the very sky, red like the battlements of a fortress. Its magnitude swelled, and the people rushed to the Prophet’s Mosque—(5) and to the Noble Chamber. They sought refuge there, surrounded the Chamber, uncovered their heads, confessed their sins, implored Allah Most High, and sought protection through His Prophet (may Allah have mercy on them). (6)

People streamed to the mosque from every direction and from among the palm-groves; women and children came out of their houses, and all gathered together, devoting themselves sincerely to Allah. (7) The redness of the fire covered the whole sky so that people were left in a light like moonlight; the sky looked like congealed blood, and everyone felt certain that destruction or punishment was at hand. That night the people spent the hours in prayer, in recitation of the Qur’an, bowing, prostrating, supplicating Allah—may He be Exalted—renouncing their sins, seeking forgiveness, and repenting. The fire remained where it was, yet its intensity and blaze began to lessen. The jurist and the judge went up to the governor to admonish him; he thereupon abolished the market toll, freed all his male and female slaves, and returned to us—and to others—whatever property of ours was in his possession.

The fire, however, stayed as it was, blazing fiercely, like an enormous mountain (8) and as high and wide as a city. (9) Stones would shoot out of it, rise into the sky, then fall back into it, and from it there burst masses of fire as large as mountains, (10) booming like thunder. (11) It remained like this for several days, after which it began to flow like a torrent toward Wādī Uḥaylin, descending with the valley to al-Shaẓāh until its flow reached al-Baḥrah, the ḥarra of the Pilgrim. (12) (13)