I Have Frequently, However, Seen The Former Imitating The Men. [FN#30] The Arab Legend Is, That The Angels Asking

The Almighty why Ibrahim was called Al-Khalil (or God’s friend); they were told that all his thoughts were

Fixed on heaven; and when they called to mind that he had a wife and child, Allah convinced them of the Patriarch’s sanctity by a trial. One night Ibrahim saw, in a vision, a speaker, who said to him, “Allah orders thee to draw near him with a victim!” He awoke, and not comprehending the scope of the dream, took especial notice of it ([Arabic]); hence the first day of pilgrimage is called Yaum al-Tarwiyah. The same speaker visited him on the next night, saying, “Sacrifice what is dearest to thee!” From the Patriarch’s knowing ([Arabic]) what the first vision meant, the second day is called Yaum Arafat. On the third night he was ordered to sacrifice Ismail; hence that day is called Yaum Nahr (of “throat-cutting”). The English reader will bear in mind that the Moslem day begins at sunset. I believe that the origin of “Tarwiyat” (which may mean “carrying water”) dates from the time of pagan Arabs, who spent that day in providing themselves with the necessary. Yaum Arafat derives its name from the hill, and Yaum al-Nahr from the victims offered to the idols in the Muna valley. [FN#31] The present generation of pilgrims, finding the delay inconvenient, always pass on to Arafat without halting, and generally arrive at the mountain late in the afternoon of the 8th, that is to say, the first day of pilgrimage.

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