Note 103 — PART I THE LEGEND OF THE NOCTURNAL JOURNEY AND ASCENSION OF MAHOMET COMPARED WITH THE DIVINE COMEDY

Extant at the Kgl. Bibliothek, Berlin (Nos. 2,901/2) and at Vienna (No. 1,908), according to Brockelmann, I, 443, No. 16. Another copy is in the possession of the author, to whom it was presented by his learned friend Hassen Husny Abdul-Wahab, Professor of History at the Khalduniya of Tunis. The Book of the Nocturnal Journey comprises 108 folios, of which the greater part is commentary. In the prologue, Ibn Arabi states that the theme is a Miraj of the soul written both in verse and prose and in a style combining allegory with literal fact. He begins by saying: “I set out from the land of Alandalus (Spain) in the direction of Jerusalem my steed the faith of Islam, with asceticism as my bed and abnegation as provision for the journey.” He meets a youth of spiritual nature, sent from on high to act as his guide; but in the Ascension from Jerusalem is guided by another, “the envoy of Divine Grace,” with whom he ascends through the celestial spheres into the presence of God.