325 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; he said: Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd related to me; he said: Abū al-Yamān al-Ḥakam ibn Nāfiʿ narrated to us, from Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, from Hawshab ibn Yūsuf al-Maʿāfirī, from Rāshid ibn Aflah al-Muqriʾ, who told them that they once visited ʿAmr al-Bikālī. During the visit someone happened to mention the dragon (tinnīn). ʿAmr said to him, “Do you know how a dragon comes into being? It starts out as a snake: it attacks another snake and swallows it, then proceeds to eat every snake it can find. It keeps devouring them, growing ever larger and more bloated, until its venom intensifies. Then it comes forth burning whatever lies before it, swoops down upon the beasts of the earth, and destroys them. Allah drives it on until it reaches a river it wishes to cross; the water strikes it and pushes it into the sea. ⦗208⦘ There it does to the creatures of the sea what it did to the creatures of the land, and its venom only increases, until the sea creatures cry out to Allah for relief. Allah then sends an angel who strikes the beast so that its head emerges from the water. Next, He brings down clouds and flashes of lightning, which lift the dragon and cast it to Gog and Magog as a carcass for them. They carve it up just as they butcher camels and cattle.”