I Have Been Unable To Find Any
Modern Indication Of The Monument That Was Shown By The Mahomedans As The
Tomb, And Sometimes As The House, Of Adam; But Such A Structure There
Certainly Was, Perhaps An Ancient Kist-Vaen, Or The Like.
John
Marignolli, who was there about 1349, has an interesting passage on the
subject:
"That exceeding high mountain hath a pinnacle of surpassing
height, which on account of the clouds can rarely be seen. [The summit is
lost in the clouds. (Ibn Khordadhbeh, p. 43.) - H.C.] But God, pitying
our tears, lighted it up one morning just before the sun rose, so that we
beheld it glowing with the brightest flame. [They say that a flame bursts
constantly, like a lightning, from the Summit of the mountain. - (Ibn
Khordadhbeh, p. 44.) - H.C.] In the way down from this mountain there is
a fine level spot, still at a great height, and there you find in order:
first, the mark of Adam's foot; secondly, a certain statue of a sitting
figure, with the left hand resting on the knee, and the right hand raised
and extended towards the west; lastly, there is the house (of Adam), which
he made with his own hands. It is of an oblong quadrangular shape like a
sepulchre, with a door in the middle, and is formed of great tabular slabs
of marble, not cemented, but merely laid one upon another. (Cathay,
358.) A Chinese account, translated in Amyot's Memoires, says that at
the foot of the mountain is a Monastery of Bonzes, in which is seen the
veritable body of Fo, in the attitude of a man lying on his side" (XIV.
25). [Ma-Huan says (p. 212): "Buddhist temples abound there.
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