“…When the night came on which I was taken on the Night Journey, a fine fragrance passed by me. I said, ‘O Gabriel, what is this delightful scent?’ He answered, ‘This is the scent of the hair-dresser of Pharaoh’s daughter and her children.’

I asked, ‘What is their story?’ He said, ‘While she was combing Pharaoh’s daughter one day, the comb slipped from her hand and she exclaimed, “In the name of Allah.” The girl said to her, “You mean my father?” She replied, “No. My Lord and the Lord of your father is Allah.” The girl said, “Shall I tell him that?” She replied, “Yes.” So the girl informed him, and he summoned the woman and asked, “So-and-so, do you have a lord other than me?” She answered, “Yes—my Lord and yours is Allah.”

He thereupon ordered that a copper cow-shaped furnace be heated, then commanded that she and her children be cast into it.

She said to him, “I have a request of you.” He asked, “And what is your request?” She said, “I wish that you gather my bones and the bones of my children in a single cloth and bury us together.” He said, “That is granted to you, for you have a claim upon us.”

He then ordered that her children be thrown in before her, one after another, until they came to a nursing infant of hers, and it was as though she hesitated to