He dispatched an envoy to accompany us to the king, and we set out. When we were close to the capital, our escort said, “These mounts of yours are not allowed into the king’s city; if you wish, ⦗1⦘ we can seat you on palfreys and mules.” We replied, “By Allah, we will enter only on these.” They therefore reported to the king that we were refusing. ⦗2⦘
We entered on our own mounts, swords slung at our sides, until we reached one of his chambers. We made our animals kneel at its foot while he watched us, and we proclaimed, “There is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest.” Allah knows that the chamber shook ⦗3⦘ until it was as though ⦗4⦘ a cluster of dates were being battered by the wind. He sent word to us: “You are not permitted to raise your voices with your religion in my presence.”
He then summoned us in. We entered to find him reclining on his couch, surrounded by his Byzantine patricians ⦗5⦘. Everything in the audience hall was red—the furnishings, the surroundings— and he himself was dressed in red garments. We approached him, and he laughed and said, “What harm would there have been if you had greeted me with the greeting you use among yourselves?” He was a man fluent in Arabic and fond of speech.
We answered, “The greeting we exchange among ourselves is not lawful for you, and the greeting by which you are greeted is not lawful for us to address you with.”
He asked, “What is the greeting among yourselves?”
We said, “Peace be upon you.”
He said, “How do you greet your king?”
We replied, “With the same.”
He asked, “And how does he reply to you?”
We said, “With the same.”
He then asked, “What are the greatest words you utter?”
We replied, “There is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest.”
When we pronounced them—Allah knows—the chamber trembled, and he lifted his head toward it. He asked, “This phrase that you have spoken, the one that made the chamber shake—does it make your houses shake each time you say it there?” We replied, “No; we have never seen it do that anywhere except in your presence.”