and Mount al-Likām, Mount al-Ahyash, Mount Sūlān near Ardabīl, Mount Shuhnak near Tabrīz, Mount Māshkū near Aqashwān, Mount Nahāwand, and other mountains where some people suppose there are righteous men from among humankind, whom they call “men of the unseen.” Yet those present there are men from among the jinn, for there are men among the jinn just as there are among humankind. Allah Most High says:
“There were men among humankind who sought refuge with men among the jinn, but they only increased them in distress.”
Some of these appear in the form of a hairy man whose skin resembles that of a goat. Someone unfamiliar with him supposes him to be human, when he is actually a jinn. It is said that each of these mountains is home to the forty abdāl. Yet those thought to be the abdāl are jinn inhabiting these mountains, as is known through various means.
There is no room here to discuss this subject at length or recount what we know of it. We have seen and heard things whose description would be too lengthy for this brief work, written for someone who asked us to explain enough about the allies of Allah Most High to give him a general understanding of the subject.
People fall into three groups regarding extraordinary phenomena:
“One group” denies that such things occur to anyone other than prophets, though it may acknowledge them in general