that he would not leave Abrahah unpunished until he had set foot in his land and shorn his forelock. When Abrahah heard of the oath, he shaved his own head, filled a sack with Yemeni soil, and sent it to the Negus.

He then wrote:
“O King, Aryāṭ was your servant and I am likewise your servant. We differed only over your command, and both of us owe you obedience. Yet I proved the stronger in directing the Abyssinians, in restraining them, and in governing their affairs. I have therefore shaved my entire head as soon as I learned of your oath, and I have dispatched to you a bag of earth from my land for you to place beneath your feet, so that your oath concerning me may be fulfilled.”

When this message reached the Negus, he was satisfied with Abrahah and wrote back: “Remain in the land of Yemen until my further orders reach you.” Abrahah accordingly stayed in Yemen.

***

Account of the reason Abrahah set out with the elephant for Mecca to demolish the Kaʿbah—and how God destroyed him swiftly, as the Almighty says:
“Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with the People of the Elephant?
Did He not wreck their scheme,
and send against them birds in flocks,
pelting them with stones of baked clay,
and make them like stalks of grain devoured?”
[al-Fīl 105:1–5]

It is said that the first to tame elephants was Afrīdūn son of Athfiyān—who slew al-Ḍaḥḥāk—according to al-Ṭabarī. He was also the first to make saddles for horses. The first to subjugate and ride horses, however, was Ṭahmūrath, the third king to rule the world.

Another opinion maintains that the first to ride them was Ishmael son of Abraham, peace be upon them both; it may be that he was merely the first Arab to do so. God knows best.

It is also said that, despite its enormous size, the elephant is frightened by a cat, and that some military commanders have employed this stratagem in battle