On Friday morning a thundering noise was heard, and at
mid-day the fire burst forth.
On the spot where it issued from the earth
a smoke first arose, which completely darkened the sky. To the eastward
of the town, towards the close of day, the flames were visible, a fiery
mass of immense size, which bore the appearance of a large town, with
walls, battlements, and minarets, ascending to heaven. Out of this flame
issued a river of red and blue fire, accompanied with the noise of
thunder. The burning waves carried whole rocks before them, and farther
on heaped them up like high mounds. The river was approaching nearer to
the town, when Providence sent a cool breeze, which arrested its further
progress on this side. All the inhabitants of Medina passed that night
in the great mosque; and the reflection of the fire changed that night
into day-light. The fiery river took a northern direction, and
terminated at the mountain called Djebel Wayra, standing in the valley
called Wady el Shathat, which is a little to the eastward of Djebel Ohod
[two miles and a half from Medina]. For five days the flame was seen
ascending, and the river remained burning for three months. Nobody could
approach it on account of its heat. It destroyed all rocks; but, (says
the historian,) this being the sacred territory of Medina, where
Mohammed had ordained that no trees should be cut within a certain
space, it spared all the trees it met with in its course.
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