Near to China is a place in the sea called Sanzhi (Taiwan). This is the point where the sea is the worst, where there is the most wind, storms, dangers, and frightening objects. The children, like those of Zanj, spread out and assail the ships. They are large, of five spans (2); they come out of the water, jump on the vessels, roam over them in all directions without hurting anyone, and then go back into the waves. When sailors see them appear, they know that the winds will become bad. They then return to their ships, lighten the ship by throwing overboard some of their cargo, and tightening one or two cubits (3) of the sail in the yard, or more according to their fear.

A Jewish merchant recounted that one year he was on a ship that was broken, and the storm tossed it with his companions on an island where the earth, the rocks, and everything else was golden. They stayed several days without any food except the fish, which were quite rare. As they were in danger of perishing, they found the ship’s lifeboat remained intact; they drew it against the shore and filled it with gold; but their greed led them to exceed the load that it could hold; they entered and gained the high seas, seeking to save themselves; they did not get far before the ship sank. All the gold was lost, and almost all of them perished, except a few who escaped by swimming in the direction of Zanj and reached the shore.

Many nations issued from the children of Sudan (4), son of Cainan, among others: the Ashban (5), the Zanj, and various races which multiplied in the West, numbering about seventy; they had different destinies and separate kings. Among these races there is one where men are dressed only in skins; one that is clothed with grass; one where people wear on their heads the horns and bones of animals, and feed on a white mouse they call manna from heaven. In this race, one man marries ten women; he spends every night with two of them. If he gets along with them, he keeps them; otherwise he sets them free after the third night. There are often disputes among this people. When these people want rain, they gather bones, make a mound and a calcine; at the same time they turn around, raising their hands to heaven, and say formulas; rain falls and they collect it. When one of them celebrates their wedding, they smear her face with a substance that looks like ink; then they sit on a mound and make the woman sit before it. They cover her with reeds forming a sort of dome of foliage; they remain surrounding it for three days, busy drinking corn wine and playing, and then they walk away. The husband takes his wife and travels to the place where they will reside. The men of this tribe put copper rings on their wives’ wrists and ears. They give them the qardawdniah (6), which are dyed red and which are worn, but among them only the king may wear it. They have a great tree in whose honor they celebrate a festival every year. They meet and rejoice around it, until one of its leaves falls on them, which they take for a good omen; their wives are adorned with copper rings and shells in their hair.

The Abyssinians border the Zanj, located on the shore of the salt sea and whose kingdom is extensive. They descend from Sudan (4), son of Cainan, and they also have several kings and kingdoms. Their principal king is called Kunah (7); he resides on the shore of the sea, in a place called Kandu. These Zanj file their teeth until they become very thin; they have large mouths and very white teeth in front, because they eat lots of fish. They have elephants whose tusks they sell to traders from neighboring countries. They own islands where they collect shells with which they adorn themselves, or which they sell. They are divided into several tribes spread among several kingdoms.

The Kerk. This is a nation that descends from Sudan (4), son of Cainan; it is close to the people of Sindh (23) and Zanj and has them for enemies. The Kerk are strong and tall men, with long hair, beautiful faces, and learned in the art of war. They have a king called Naksa, a very powerful ruler who has several others under his rule. They follow the religion of idols that came to them from the people of Sind and Hind.

The Kerk have for neighbors on the side of the Zanj side several nations and tribes that cannot be counted. The Zanj and Kerk border the people of Sind (23) and Hind [and Bend], which are the descendants of Cush (24), son of Ham, and whose common ancestor is Hind, son of Cush. These people have branched into separate tribes, divided into a number of kingdoms. Once they were all united under the authority of a king called Brahman; then they divided, created independent kingdoms, and fortified themselves on their islands. Today they form seventies and a few more nations.

Anqam  the Priest (8)

There was in old Misr (25), whose name was then Amsus (21), a priest-king named Anqam (8), son of Aram, son of Adam. The Egyptians have for him many traditions that astound the mind. This king lived before the flood and his science had caused him to predict its coming. He ordered the Satans who obeyed him to build him a palace across the equator where no damage could reach it. They built the palace which is at the foot of the Mountain of the Moon. This is a copper palace where stand copper statues in the number of eighty-five (18); Nile water comes out of their throats and flows into the lakes of Egypt. When this palace was completed, the king wanted to see it before taking up residence therein. He sat in a dome and the Satans carried him on their necks to the palace. As soon as he saw it, he admired the solidity of its construction, the ornaments of the walls, its paintings, figures of the spheres, and other wonders with which it was completed; the lamps were lit; the tables were set, loaded with all kinds of dishes, with no one to see who brought them; there was also no resident in the palace. In the middle was a pool of water that was solidified at the surface and one could see movement through the solid waves. At last the whole building was full of similar wonders confounding to reason. The king returned to Misr (25) having admired it, and he chose for his successor his son Arbaq (22); he gave him power, made him sit in his place on his throne. Then he returned to the palace, where he lived until his death. It is to him that we attribute the origin of the Copts’ books, which contain the stories of their kings.

Shaon of Ashmun (9)

They say he was the first Hermes (10), the one who built the palace of statues, which measured the volume of water of the Nile and is located in the Mountains of the Moon.

King Naqraus (11)

We read in the sheets of the Egyptians that the king asked the teacher he had with him to inform him of the source of the Nile. The djinn carried him beyond the line of the equator, above the Black Sea of pitch and walked with him to the Mountains of the Moon. Then he took him out into the marshes. It is said that this prince there built the temple of the idols and there raised up a temple to the sun.

Al-Budashir (12)

Qoftarim (13) was succeeded by his son al-Budashir (12). This prince swelled with pride, devoted himself to magic, and could hide himself from the eyes of men. His uncles Ashmun, Sa, and Atrib reigned in their provinces, but he was more powerful than them, which is why he was acknowledged (as king). They say he gave Hermes (10) the Egyptian the mission to go to the Mountain of the Moon, under which is the source of the Nile, to build a temple with copper statues (18), and to excavate lakes into which the water of the Nile could pour itself. It is also said that he channeled the Nile, for previously the river had flowed in various places and was divided into many branches.

They say Manqaus (26) built a temple for magicians (27) on Mount al-Qusair (the Mountain of the Moon) and gave them one of their own for their leader, a man named Maslas. These magicians locked up the winds and gave them to ships only under after they had paid a toll.

An Amalekite (28) prince from Syria marched towards Egypt. At this news the king, gathering his army, went to meet him, attacked him, and scattered his troops. He entered into Palestine, killed many people and took many prisoners there. Among the captives were several scholars that the king made to reside in Egypt. Thus Tedaris (29) made himself fearsome to all the sovereigns.

At the beginning of the thirtieth year of his reign, the Negroes of the countries of Zanj and Nubia wanted to make a foray into his empire. They gathered on the borders and they inflicted great damage. The king gathered the troops from all the provinces of Egypt, and he equipped vessels; he gave one of his generals, named Bilatis, command of 300,000 men, as many horsemen as infantry; he was followed by another general at the head of equal forces, and he sent three hundred ships to sea. Each of these ships had a priest in charge of doing wonders. The king himself marched at the rear with the rest of the army. The Egyptians met the army of Negroes, which had about a million men, and they routed them. They killed many men and made many their prisoners. Then they chased them until they had arrived in the land of elephants in the country of Zanj. They took many of these animals, and with them a quantity of tigers and wild animals, and they brought them back to Egypt. The king erected on the border lighthouses on which wrote the history of this campaign, the date of the invasion of the Negroes, and all the major events of his reign.

Al-Walid (14), son of Duma

The idea came to Walid to save himself by trying to reach the sources of the Nile and to conquer at the same time all the nations of that region. He spent three years preparing the expedition. When he had gathered everything he needed, he entrusted the government of Egypt to his servant Una, and he went forth with a powerful army and a considerable train. He destroyed all the nations through which he passed. It is said that it took several years to make this trip. He passed among populations of Negros, crossed through them, went into the land of gold, and saw in some places gold pressed into rods. This land forms the limits of the country Ganah.

Al-Walid (14), continuing to move forward, reached the lake whence the waters of the Nile discharge themselves; they are fed by the rivers that flow from the Mountain of the Moon. The Mountain of the Moon is a steep mountain, very wide and very long. It received this name because the moon rises in relation to it, because of the position it occupies far below the equator. Al-Walid saw how the Nile emerges from under this mountain, and how it flows in many beds forming small rivers; some of these rivers meet in a large basin, the others meet in another area, and from each of these two reservoirs a wide river flows to the large lake. This lake where the two rivers lead is located between the line of the equator and the limits of the first climate. The Nile comes out as a single river, crosses the equator and goes on to Egypt. It is joined by another stream coming from the side of Makran (15) [in India, which also has its source in the Mountain of the Moon]. It is claimed that the Mahraan rises and falls like the Nile, and he saw crocodiles and fish of the same species as those of the Nile. [This river also comes out from under the Mountains of the Moon].

Walid (14), it is said, found the palace where the copper statues (18) were erected by the first Hermes (10) in the time of the first Budashir (12), son of Qoftarim, son of Misraim (30), son of Ham, son of Noah. These statues numbered eighty-five, arranged to receive all the waters that come down from the mountain; a system of pipes equipped with rounded mouths brought water into their bodies, which then went up into their throats, in a fixed quantity and measured by graduated cubits (3). Water gushed from the mouths of the statues and formed many rivers that flowed into two lakes, which then flowed together, as we have said, to meet altogether in a great lake. Hermes (10) arranged everything with geometric precision, and he regulated the amount of water that poured through each statue so that it was sufficient for the country’s prosperity and should meet the needs of its inhabitants, but never flow in excess. This quantity was measured in this place to a height of eighteen cubits (3), the cubit being thirty-two fingers. When this limit was reached, all the water that still poured out was rejected to the right of the statues; it entered conduits that led it to the right of the palace, where it emptied into the marshes and into uninhabited sandy plains.

………………… Now back to the story of Walid. After this king had reached the Mountains of the Moon, he saw a high peak which he ascended to see what was beyond it. His gaze took in the black and fetid Sea of Poison. He also saw the Nile emerge in the form of thin streams. But pestilential breath from the sea spread around; several of his companions perished. He himself nearly succumbed, and he had to come down in haste from the mountain. Some people said he did not see at this point either moon or sun, but a kind of red light, like the sun at sunset.

Which is the copper palace in which there are eighty-five copper statues (18) and out of them comes the water of the Nile, then he loved to see it, the demons carried him, when he saw the tight structure, and decoration of the walls, and the inscriptions, and images of planets, And other types of wonders, he was impressed and thanked them, and this was a palace that is not without lamps and the tables are set, and with other foods that are unknown, as well as drinks used from them they do not decrease, …. and he returned to Egypt

P65

Kingdom of Zinj:

And they are on the salty sea and their kingdom is wide and they are born blacks from ibn Canaan (4), the biggest King of their own: Kznh (7) the placement is called knd (=Kandu), and they are on the sea, and sharpen their teeth, their food is fish, ….. they are selling elephant tusks to foreign traders, who come to them from the islands.

P77

Al-Walid (14):

A man who is a mighty man who is an discoverer, who kills a group of wizards and priests. Then he took the risk of going from the Maghreb to the sources of the Nile. He stayed for three years preparing for his departure until he prepared all that he needs from several weapons. He went out with a thick army and the followers followed, and spectators. And he went on his journey for several years, and took refuge in the nations of the Sudan (4), and passed on the land of gold, which is the last country Alwa (19) where gold grows, so that he reached Batiha (lake or swamp) where the water of the Nile flows from the rivers of the universe and goes out from beneath the moon's mountain. Then he walked until the temple of the sun reached and entered it. Then he walked until he reached Mount Moon. The mountain, which is behind the equator, is not seen by the sun or moon, so look at the mountain and see the water of the Nile coming out from under it and passing through the rivers like the Euphrates, ending in two lakes, then going out to two rivers, then ending up to another river, then reaching the equator. The Euphrates River, like the Nile, increases and diminishes and has crocodiles and fish such as Nile fishes, and it emerges from under the mountains of the moon,

What is told about Al Walid:

That he arrived at the palace in which are the statues of copper (18), which is the work of Hermes (10) I in his time, the first Sher bin Qiftin (=Qoftarim) bin Masrim bin Ham bin Noah peace be upon him, where are eighty-five image out of which comes the water of the Nile and they manage and channel running water, under Moon Moon until the two lakes Batiwa of the water that comes out from under Mount Moon, and those images give amounts of water that is good for the country that passes by and benefit the people without corruption, ……..

P78

Some of the people said:

That the four rivers come out of one out of a dome in the land of gold that is beyond the dark sea: Sihon, and Jihon, and the Euphrates, and the Nile (33) of Egypt.

It was said: the dome of the aquamarine, and the land of gold from the land of Paradise, and that the water before the dark sea tastes sweeter than honey, and the smell of the smell of camphor.

And Al Walid (14) when he saw the moon mountain, he liked to climb him and ascended in the gathering of his people, when he reached Ashraf (16) on the sea of asphalt, a sea with a rotten smell and an ugly landscape, and saw the Nile being above him like strings, the smell of the evil hit him from that sea and destroyed many of his people, and he went down with them, and saw no sun or moon, but it is red light as the sun's rays at sunset.

P98

Then Narcus asked the leader who was with him to show him the direction of the Nile, so that he would sit on the moon mountains behind the equator and see over the Tar Sea, and see the Nile hovering over the sea, like a thread, until it entered under the mountains of the moon.

P117

Al-Budshir ibn Qaftrim Al Malik (12):

……. It was said that he sent Hermes (10) to the Mountains of the Moon, from which the water of the Nile comes out.

P127

And when he (Tudaris the king of Egypt) (29) had gone out of his possession for thirty years, the people of Nubia and Zinj were greedy in his land, and they were weak and corrupted themselves.

P237

In the Sea of Zing, fish of various kinds can not be heard because the souls are alienated from hearing what is not visible, and the Almighty said: (he creates what you do not know).

Taken from:  Enzyklopädie als Spiegel des Weltbildes: by Syrinx von Hees

In India there is an animal that is called Zurafa (giraffe) or Usturgawpalang (17). It is said that this animal has a hard skin and a very long very rough tongue. Everything the zurafa touches with its tongue –even a stone- gets rubbed and dented.

She pulls the young ones out of her with her forelegs. The zurafa (giraffe) eats grass.  Up to 40 days the baby will be carried in a bag over the breast. After that when the young ones is strong enough it jumps out of the bag and runs away.

So the mother can not clean it with the tongue.

(1) Consumptive: tuberculosis: This story is found in: Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067); Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456); Qadi Ibn Sasri Al-Shafi’I (1300); Wasif Shah (1209); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Qazwini (1283).

(2) Span: the distance from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger of a spread hand (23cm).

(3) Cubit: Distance from fingers to elbow (45cm).

(4) Sudan, son of Cainan: Sudan son of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noa.

(5) Ashban: Arab work for Hispani: Spain.

(6) qardawdniah: in the French translation: kerdawaniah; but in each of the three manuscripts used it is written differently.

(7) The Zanj kings have been given many names through the centuries:

Ibn Khordadbeh (868) Alfikhat.

Masudi (916): The king of Zanj is called Flimi.

Al-Khwarizmi: (d997) Almehraj: King Alzabaj and Zinj.

Abu Ubayd Al Bakri (1067): And the Flymy (title of king) has three hundred thousand cavalry.

Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (1109): Al Buhraja: sahib al Zunj.

Al-Qazwini(d. 1283). Atar al Bilad: And they have a King named Aokulaim.

Muhammad al Fasi, Maliki: (d1429-30): Al Hyaj: the king of Zinj and Ghana.

Wasif Shah (1209): Their principal king is called Kunah; he resides on the shore of the sea, in a place called Kandu.

Al-Dimashqi (1325): The supreme king is called Touqlim (or tuqlim or buqlim) meaning 'son of the Lord'

Note: Charles Guillain: ( Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique…. P173) gives several versions on how different translators translated the word Flimi (King) of Masudi (916): M. Reinaud: Oklimen; M. Quatremère: Wakliman; M. Sprenger: Afliman; Deguignes: Phalimi and Aphlimi.

(8) Anqam  the Priest: this legend in repeated by Wasif Shah (1209); Nuwayri : Nihayat al-Arab (1333) and Murtada Ibn al-Afif (d1237); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335) and Makrizi (1441) have Eiqam; Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th) has Am Kaam.

Anqam , son of Aram : Aram was a son of Shem son of Nun, and the father of Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash.

(9) Shaon of Ashmun: Ashmum literally: fortress. Ashmum is also a city in Egypt. Ibn al-Dawadari (1335) has: Shamwan Al Ashmouni. It was the mythical capital city of Egypt before the floods which destroyed it.

(10) Hermes: The first Hermes, was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world. Hermes is here a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.

(11) King Naqraus: Maqrizi (1441) has Naqraush; also mentioned by Suyuti (1505); Wasif Shah (1209) has: King Naqraus.

(12) Al-Budashir: literally meaning form the Red House. Found in Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Wasif Shah (1209) has Al-Budashir; Nuwayri (1333) has Al-Boudsir, Ibn Khaldun (1406) Al-Boudashir Ibn Qubt; al Maqrizi (1441) has Budchir; Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th) has Berdashir; Suyuti (1505) has Budchir

(13) Qoftarim: father of al-Budashir who reigned 400 years.

(14) Al-Walid: Ar-Rayyan ibn al-Walid ibn Dauma was an Amalekite king of Misr during the time of Prophet Yusuf (=Joseph)

Walid is mentioned in the following books: Al-Mas'udi: (916) Kitab al-Ausat; Ibn Babawayh (991); Maslamah ibn Ahmad Majriti (1050); Katib Marrakesh (12th); Wasif Shah (1209); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Nuwayri (1333); Maqrizi (1441) (Oualid); Ibn Abd'essalem al-Menoufi (15th); Suyuti (1505).

(15) Makran: or Mecran and Mokran, is the coastal region of Baluchistan (Pakistan).

(16) Ashraf: literally; most honorable.

(17) Other versions: ushtur gaw yalank (palank); shutur-gaw-palank; ustar-gaw-palang; ushturgavpalang; ushtur or shutur-gdw-palank; ushtur kaw-balank; ushtur-gdv-palang ………………

The more used form to write it is: Usturgawpalang: persian name for giraffee; camel-ox-leopard (ustur-gaw-palang). The animal that looks like the cross of these three animals. Palang means: a leopard, a panther a giraffe, a hyena; anything of a motley colour. Ushtur: a camel [two-humped], gaw: cow, ox or bull. This Persian name is repeated among many others: Ibn al-Fakih al Hamadhani (903); Musa Ud-Damiri (d1405); Zad Sparam (9th); Ibn Bakhtishu (1295); Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (1109); Hassan Bar Bahlul (10th); Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi (1160); Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan (869); Tha'alibi (d1038); Ibn Manzur (1290); Al-Saghani (1252); Ibrahim Ibn Wasif Shah al Misri (d1209); Ibn Qutayba (880); Ibn Abd Rabbih (940).

(18) 85 tamatil: or tamafil: the 85 copper or bronze statues build at the source of the Nile by Hermes. They are mentioned by the following authors: Maslamah ibn Ahmad Majriti (1050); Wasif Shah (1209); Murtada Ibn al-Afif (1237); Picatrix: (1256); Nuwayri (1333); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); al Maqrizi (1441); Ibn al Wardi (1456); Dhikr Kalam al-Nas fi Manba’ al-Nil (15th); Suyuti (d1505).

(19) land of Alwa: northeast of the merging of the White Nile and the Bleu Nile; was a medieval kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Found in Al Khwarizmi (847); Suhrab (945); Ibn al-Fakih al Hamadhani (903); al-Zayyat (1058); Idrisi (1150); Wasif Shah (1209); Ibn Said (1250); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Ibn al-Dawadari (1335); Ibn Abd’essalam al-Menoufi (15^th).

(20) literary language in their own tongue, see on this: Al-Jahiz (869); Abu Zaid al Hassan(916); Al Masudi (916); Ibn al-Nadim: (987); Ibn al Jawzi (1200); Wasif Shah (1209); Dimashqi (1325); Nuwayri (1333).

(21) Amosus: several Pharaohs had the name Ahmose. Wasif Shah (1209) writes: “There was in old Misr, whose name was then Amsus ….” so it should have been an old name for Egypt. Murtada Ibn al-Afif (d1237) has Emsos; Nuwayri (1333): Amosus; al Maqrizi (1441): Amsus Amsous; Assus in Annon: Dhikr Kalam (15th); Suyuti (1505): Amsous.

(22) his son Arnak: Wasif Shah (1209) has Arbaq; Nuwayri (1333) has Arnak; and Murtada Ibn al-Afif (d1237) has Gariac.

(23) now in Pakistan.

(24) Cush or Kush, according to the Hebrew Bible, was the oldest son of Ham and a grandson of Noah. He was the brother of Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. Cush was the father of Nimrod, a king called the "first heroic warrior on earth". The Kingdom of Kush, was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, ... has been connected with the biblical character Cush, in the Hebrew Bible

(25) Egypt

(26) This pharaoh is only known from this book. Also called Manaqius. He was buried west of Qus and was the son of Ashmun.

(27) these were magi: fire worshippers.

(28) Amalekites ancient nomadic tribe, described in the Old Testament as relentless enemies of Israel.

(29) also called Edris; the seventh king of Egypt according to the Arabs.

(30) Misr: =Egypt.

(31) this is Anqam  the Priest the nr (8)

(32) this must be Aram.

(33) rivers Sihon, Gihon, the Nile and the Euphrates,: these four rivers are traditionally seen as the four rivers coming from paradise. But the names vary considerably. Other combinations:

Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel, Phirat.

Tigris, Effraim, Euphrates Nile.

Seihan, Djeihan, Euphrates, Nile.

Sayahoun, Jayahoun, Alfarat, and the Nile.