More than one scholar, early and later, among the Qur’ānic commentators and others, relate that the Dam of Maʾrib was engineered to hold back the waters that flowed between two mountains. In ancient times the gap was sealed with an extremely solid structure, so the water rose until it leveled with the peaks of the two mountains. On those heights they planted orchards and graceful fruit trees and cultivated abundant crops.

It is said that the first to build it was Sabaʾ ibn Yaʿrub. He diverted seventy valleys so that their streams poured into it, fashioned thirty sluice-gates through which the water could be released, and then died before the work was finished; Ḥimyar completed it after him. Its breadth measured a parasang by a parasang. The people enjoyed immense felicity, luxurious living, and pleasant days—so much so that Qatādah and others reported that a woman could walk by with a basket on her head and it would fill with fruit from what fell into it out of sheer ripeness and abundance. They also said that their land contained neither fleas nor any harmful creatures, thanks to the soundness of the climate and the purity of the air.

As the Exalted says: “Indeed there was for the people of Sabaʾ, in their dwelling-place, a sign: two gardens, one on the right and one on the left. ‘Eat of the provision of your Lord and give thanks to Him—a good land and a forgiving Lord.’” (Sabaʾ 34:15)

And He says: “And when your Lord proclaimed: ‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you; but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is indeed severe.’” (Ibrāhīm 14:7)

Yet when they worshipped other than Allah, became wanton in His favor, and—despite the nearness of their towns, the pleasant orchards between them, and the safety of their roads—asked that their journeys be lengthened and made arduous, seeking to exchange good for evil (just as the Children of Israel wished to replace manna and quail with herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions), that vast and all-embracing blessing was removed. Their land was laid waste and its people scattered, as Allah, Exalted is He, says: “But they turned away, so We unleashed upon them the flood of the dam.”

Several scholars said: Allah loosed upon the foundation of the dam the fār—that is, the rat; others said it was the mole. When the people noticed, they stationed cats there, but that did them no good, for the decree had come and caution could not ward it off: “No indeed! There is no refuge” (al-Qiyāmah 75:11). Once corruption reached its base, the dam collapsed; the water returned to its course, the channels and rivers were cut off, the fruits disappeared, the crops and trees toppled and perished. They were left instead with wretched trees and fruit, as the Mighty, the Compeller said: “And We replaced their two gardens with two gardens bearing bitter fruit and tamarisk”—Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, and others said the “bitter fruit” (khamṭ) is the arāk tree, whose berry is called al-barīr, while “tamarisk” (athl) is the ṭarafā—

or, it is said, something resembling it, a fuel-wood that bears no fruit—“and a few…"