Note 122 — AL-HAJJAJ AND THE THREE YOUNG MEN.[117]

Arab. “Al-Sufúf,” either ranks of fighting-men or the rows of threads on a loom. Here the allusion is to a weaver who levels and corrects his threads with the wooden spathe and shuttle governing warp and weft and who makes them stand straight (behave aright). The “stirrup” (rikáb) is the loop of cord in which the weaver’s foot rests.