Note 435 — ABU AL-HUSN AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL TAWADDUD.[281]
Richard Francis Burton translation
When Abu Bakr was hiding with Mohammed in a cave on the Hill Al-Saur (Thaur or Thúr, Pilgrimage ii. 131) South of Meccah, which must not be confounded with the cave on Jabal Hirá now called Jabal Núr on the way to Arafat (Pilgrimage iii. 246), the fugitives were protected by a bird which built her nest at the entrance (according to another legend it was curtained by a spider’s web), whilst another bird (the crow of whom I shall presently speak) tried to betray them. The first bird is popularly supposed to have been a pigeon, and is referred to by Hudibras:—
Th’ apostles of this fierce religion
Like Mahomet, were ass and widgeon.
The ass I presume alludes to the marvellous beast Al-Burák which the Greeks called Βράχθαν from Βραχ (Euthymius in Pocock, Spec. A.H. p. 144) and which Indian Moslems picture with human face, ass’s ears, equine body and peacock’s wings and tail. The “widgeon” I presume to be a mistake or a misprint for pigeon.