"At this narrative, related by Kaab el-Ahbár, Mo'áwiyeh wondered, and he said to him, 'Can any one of mankind arrive at that city?' 'Yes,' answered Kaab el-Ahbár; 'a man of the companions of Mohammed (upon whom be blessing and peace!), in appearance like this man who is sitting here, without any doubt.' Esh-Shaabee also saith, 'It is related, on the authority of the learned men of Hemyer, in El-Yemen, that when Sheddád and those who were with him were destroyed by the loud cry, his son Sheddád the Less reigned after him; for his father, Sheddád the Greater, had left him as successor to his kingdom, in the land of Hadramót and Seba, on his departure with the troops who accompanied him to Irem Zat-el-'Emád. And as soon as the news reached him of the death of his father, on the way before his arrival at the city of Irem, he gave orders to carry his father's body from those desert tracts to Hadramót, and to excavate the sepulchre for him in a cavern. And when they had done this, he placed his body in it, upon a couch of gold, and covered the corpse with seventy robes, interwoven with gold and adorned with precious jewels; and he placed at his head a tablet of gold, whereon were inscribed these verses:--
"'Be admonished, O thou who art deceived by a prolonged life! I am Sheddád, the son of 'A'd, the lord of a strong fortress, The lord of power and might, and of excessive valour. The inhabitants of the earth obeyed me, fearing my severity and threats; And I held the east and west under a strong dominion. And a preacher of the true religion invited us to the right way; But we opposed him, and said, Is there no refuge from it? And a loud cry assaulted us from a tract of the distant horizon; Whereupon we fell down like corn in the midst of a plain at harvest; And now, beneath the earth, we await the threatened day.'
"Eth-Tha'álibee also saith, 'It happened that two men entered this cavern, and found at its upper end some steps, and having descended these, they found an excavation, the length whereof was a hundred cubits, and its breadth forty cubits, and its height a hundred cubits. And in the midst of this excavation was a couch of gold, upon which was a man of enormous bulk, occupying its whole length and breadth, covered with ornaments and with robes interwoven with gold and silver; and at his head was a tablet of gold, whereon was an inscription. And they took that tablet, and carried away from the place as much as they could of bars of gold and silver and other things.'"
