—they will be brought white she-camels with wings, and upon them are saddles of gold. The straps of their sandals will be flashing light, and each stride of those mounts will reach as far as the eye can see. They will halt at a tree from whose base two springs flow. They will drink from one of the two, and it will cleanse their bellies of every impurity; then they will bathe in the other, and thereafter their skin and hair will never become dishevelled, while the radiance of bliss will flow over them. They will then proceed—” or he said, “they will come—to the gate of Paradise. There they will find a door-ring of red ruby fixed to plates of gold. They will strike the ring against the plate, and it will give off a resonance, O ʿAlī, the like of which no creature has ever heard. Every huri will then realise that her husband has arrived; she will send her steward, who will open the gate for him. When the steward sees him, he will fall—”

Maslamah said: I think he said, “in prostration,”

“and say, ‘Raise your head; I am only your steward, appointed over your affairs.’ The man will follow him, treading in his footsteps. Impatience will seize the huri, so she will come rushing out of her pavilions of pearl and ruby until she embraces him and says:

‘You are my beloved and I am your beloved;
I am the everlasting one who never dies;
I am the blissful one who never suffers;
I am the contented one who is never displeased;
I am the abiding one who never departs.’

He will then enter a house whose foundation to its ceiling measures one hundred thousand cubits, its structure built of blocks of pearl [and ruby] laid in courses—red, yellow, and green—none of the courses resembling the next. Inside the house there are seventy couches; on every couch are seventy cushions (1); on every cushion are seventy wives; on every wife are seventy garments, yet the marrow of her shin may be seen through the robes. He will visit them all in the span of a single night of yours. Beneath them rivers flow—rivers of water “that neither stagnates nor changes,” clear, without any turbidity; and rivers of milk whose taste never changes, not drawn from the udders of livestock; and rivers of wine, delightful to the drinkers, not trodden out by men’s feet; and rivers of clarified honey [Muḥammad: 15], not taken from the bellies of bees. The fruits will be sweetened for him; if he wishes he may eat standing, or sitting, or reclining.”

Then he recited: “And their shade will be close above them, and their clusters will hang low in subjection” [al-Insān: 14]. “Should he desire food, there will come to him a white bird”—and he said, or perhaps a green one—“which will spread its wings, and he will eat from its sides whatever colours he wishes; then it will fly away. An angel will then enter and say, ‘Peace be upon you. This is the Garden that you have been made to inherit because of what you used to do’ [al-Aʿrāf: 43]. Were a single hair from a huri to fall upon the earth, it would illuminate the whole earth, and beside its brilliance the sun itself would appear black.” (2)

We have also transmitted this in al-Jaʿdiyyāt as the statement of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, halted at him, and that is nearer to authenticity; Allah knows best.

Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī said: ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd narrated to us, Zuhayr reported to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿĀṣim, from ʿAlī who said: He mentioned the Fire and magnified its horror in a report I cannot recall, then said: “And those who feared their Lord will be driven to the Garden in groups” [al-Zumar: 73]—until, when they reach one of its gates, they find beside it a tree from beneath whose trunk two springs flow.