Egypt, its news, wonders, marvels, kings

“…And one of the people had isolated himself in building a house that he took and lived in its highest part. He saw the fourteenth Walid from his son’s son in it, like the presence of the Sultan Ahmad ibn Tulun. He looked at a man with clear signs of worries in him, and traces of what time had done to him were apparent, but his senses were sound, and his nerves were strong, and his mind was sound, and he understood from whoever spoke to him and could explain and answer for himself.

So he asked him about some of his intentions and his place, to which he turned to him to talk about food and drinks. He refused to eat anything and would only eat after being away from his ignorant company with cookies and other things.

He said, ‘This building is a structure that my morals are based on. You see from this enmity the distance that the touch indicates. So if you hear the saying about this habit and the consumption of what they have deposited on it from food, drinks, and clothes, that was the reason for making this building permissible and for stripping this image. So he left it as it was and as was his custom with it in the presence…”

“…Ahmad ibn Tulun had with him a man from the people of knowledge, and he devoted his attention to him and isolated himself with him for many nights and days, listening to his words, his arguments, and his answers to what was asked of him. Among what he asked about was the news about the lake of Tanis and Damietta.

He said, ‘It was a land that had no equal in Egypt in its evenness, the goodness of its soil, and its richness. And it had gardens, fields, vineyards, and plantations and trees. And in it were villages at an elevation from the land, and villages at its ground level, which people did not pass through. No country was better than this land, nor were its gardens and vineyards ever better. And Egypt was not a region that was said to be like Fayoum alone, but it was better in goodness than Fayoum, and more fertile, and had more fruits and aromatic plants of the strange kinds. And there was a water source in it that was rooted to it, that never ceased in summer or winter, from which they would irrigate their gardens whenever they wished, and likewise…”

“…their crops and the rest of it flows into the sea from all its canals from the place known as Al-Ashmounain. And there was between the sea and this land a journey of about one day. And there was between Al-Arish and the island of Cyprus a road that was traveled, which animals and people could cross. And there was not between Al-Arish and the island of Cyprus a road. When it was from Al-Hajah and the island of Cyprus, and between Al-Arish in the sea, there was a long journey.

Likewise, between it and the land of Rome. And there was between Andalusia and the place that is called Al-Khudra’, which is near Fez in the Maghreb. And it requires a bridge built with stones.

It would be crossed by camels and animals from the coast of the Maghreb to the lands of Andalusia. And from there to the Maghreb. And from what came out of that bridge, there was a cut off of small canals that flowed under its bridges. And what was established of the dams under it. And there was every mountain to Jirly and it is…”

“The beginning of the Roman Sea [Mediterranean Sea] is taken from Afiyānis, which is the Great Ocean. The sea continued to rise in its water and rise upon the land, covering it over the course of the years. Its rise is seen by the people of every era, and they can discern it from every period, and they know it by… until the water covered the road that was between Al-Arish and Cyprus, and it covered the bridge that was between Andalusia and Khadra Fas and what I have described regarding what is apparent to the people of Andalusia and the people of Fas from the coast of the Maghreb about the news of this bridge, and maybe the place appears to the people on the boats under the water, so they say this is the bridge, and its length was about eleven miles in a wide and high expanse. And it was in the time of the king Doolatniyans, two hundred and fifty-one years. So the water from the sea settled on some of the places that are called Lake of Tanis and it submerged it, and it went back and forth every year until it was filled with what was in the villages that were in its base.”

“…So they were uncovered, and the water that was on the high ground was close to them, like Yund and Samun and others that are visible until this time. And the water that the people of the villages in this lake dig in to fill their water to Tanis, and they dig for them, one after the other. And these are the three mounds that are called today Abu al-Lu’m. And the complete submergence of this land occurred after the rule of King Dafatiyans, two hundred and fifty-one years. And that was a hundred years before Egypt was opened. He said: And a king from the kings of the nations had a great house with a ruler from the kingdom, and what was connected to it from the land was wars and trenches and bays. So it was opened from the Nile to the sea, preventing each from the other. And that was a reason for the branching of the Nile’s water and its control over this land. And he was asked about the length of the Abyssinians on the Nile and their wealth. He said: I met some of their kings…”

“The kings died, and one of them left a house of stone to live in.

He built a pyramid with stone and mortar, and the kings of Syria and Egypt were buried in it.

It was filled with their treasuries and secrets.

The most beautiful of their treasures are the ones that have been polished by the sun.

In it, gold and silver have changed their color and their faces are changed.

It has become a pure metal, and they melt it and the bricks, and the gold that comes out from it is pure and the silver is pure.

The things that come out of it are from the knowledge of what is in them, and what is close to it and what is far from it.

The news of the end of the Nile, which is not known in its length and its width. And about the Nile that has no end and their place in the Nile, which is an ancient secret, they call the Nile… and under the place, they call it the tomb of the great giant and others.

They mentioned that the giants had built them.

And when they came to them, they said, ‘We are the people of the king, and he is a complete man. In his kingdoms, there are different kings, who are divided from him, and he is a wise ruler.

The kings of Egypt and Syria used to make him a pyramid to live in, and he would build it from his own money.

The pyramids are in the place that he chose for them, and they are built by the water.

They would cut the stones and the bricks, and they would lift them on the amount that they wanted from the height, and they would make the trenches under the pyramid.

The pyramids are from the land and from the house of the pyramid. This is a pyramid made of clay. They say it is a house of the great giant.

They would make these great houses. When they became old, the people of the time who could not do anything about the giant would come to them, and they would ask them about the knowledge of the Nile and its rise and fall.

They would say to them, ‘We have seen from their kings…’”

“…they build the pyramid in a gradual manner, so that when they finish it, they cover it from top to bottom.

This was their method. And with this, they had strength, patience, and obedience to their kings in a religious manner. He was asked, ‘What is the matter with this writing on the pyramids and the wilderness that cannot be read?’ He said, ‘Leave the words to the people of the time who could understand this.’

The land of Egypt passed down the pyramids, and it was mastered by its people with a pure mouth and the forms of the written language and the Coptic language.

So they read it according to their interpretations and mixed the alphabet of the Romans with the letters according to what they created from the writing between the Romans and the first Copts, so their writing was lost from them, oh, understand.

He was asked, ‘Who was the first to settle in Egypt?’

He said, ‘The first to settle this land was Misr ibn Baris ibn Ham ibn Noah,’ and he mentioned in the genealogies…”

The 3 sons of Noah and their children and their dispersion on the Earth.

He was asked, ‘Do you know where the marble quarries of Egypt are?’

He said, ‘Yes, on the eastern side of the Said, a mountain of great bones of marble from which the ancients used to cut columns and other things.

They would make them fit together with a connection after filling them with mortar, the columns and the bases and the capitals which the people of Aswan call the Aswan.

From it are the stones of the mills, which the ancients transported after the coming of Christianity, and from them are the ships.

From them are the columns in Alexandria, and the great column in it.

There is no column like it in the world. I saw a column in the mountain of Aswan next to this column.

It was designed, but they did not separate it from the mountain.

They did not complete what appeared of it, but they were waiting for it to be separated from the mountain.

So they made it solid and then they made it roll to where they wanted in Fayoum.’

And he was asked about the city of the Eagle"

“So he said: ‘In the west of the pyramids of Busir and Giza, and at a distance of 5 days, there is a land of blame, the central good.

Behind its great rocks and on the path to it is the seven that leads towards it. And he mentioned what is in it of treasures, gems, wealth, and money, because of which it was named the City of the Eagle.’

He described another city west of Ikhm from the land of Sa’id with a wonderful construction that was established by the kings of the past and was destroyed by time.

He mentioned about this other city wonderful stories. He claimed that between it and Ikhm from the land of Sa’id there is a journey of six days. And he was asked about the people of Mu’tah and their land. So he said: ‘They have wonderful camels, goats, cattle, and sheep. And their king benefits from a strong cavalry, and the majority of their people ride on their camels, the Mu’awidīn, and some of them with their money from every stranger. And their women have adopted the way of the people of the Hijaz and Yemen and others from the Arabs”