105718 – Ayyub ibn Maʿmar narrated to me; he said:

Harun, the Commander of the Faithful, was besieging a fortress when an arrow—without an iron head—suddenly flew in and landed before him. Written on the shaft were two lines (metre: al-Wāfir):

“When the raven’s plumage turns grey I shall return to my family,
and when pitch is white as fresh milk.”

Harun al-Rashid ordered, “Write on it and shoot it back,” and he dictated (al-Wāfir):

“Perhaps the hardship in which you have spent this evening
will be followed by a relief that is close at hand.”

Two or three days later the fortress was taken. The man who had loosed the arrow was among those who escaped; he had been a prisoner there for two years.