breasts.
The masts of ships are often likened to flags. The word, qila'u, is employed for both boats and the summit of mountains. Ra'i says:
It pounced upon them so cleverly that neither their shelters nor the
mountain summits could save the hares.
The hawk which the poet is describing, neither allows the hare to seek
protection within the forage nor upon the summits of mountains. Abu
al-Najm says:
We do not load the slaves with more burden than they can bear: and
we carry more load than mountains.
Qila'u' actually means clouds. Ibn Ahmar says:
Clouds shower rain upon it and its darkness envelops the day as if in
a state of frenzy.
Zayd al-Khayl says:
The house has been destroyed, and clouds pour water there. Therefore, there is no human being inhabiting (that place).
Qila'u' means clouds. Clouds resemble mountains and iron is mined from
mountains. Because of these shared characteristics, iron has been associated with sky (or Heaven), and God has said He revealed iron or made it
to descend. HudhaFi the poet said:
Sufficient unto thee is muhannad — the heavenly steel sword, above
the heart and below the shoulder.
The sword that is of clear steel that has been thinned through constant heating and the innards of the hungry bird.
The first verse of the first couplet clearly states that the birth of iron is
heavenly and it was made to come down from Heaven. By muhannad
the poet does not mean that the sword is of Indian origin, but has used
the adjective as an essential attribute of it. Then in the second verse the
poet more clearly alludes to what has been reported that when the
lightening's fire strikes and tears the earth and penetrates, that site is excavated and iron is brought out, so that qala'i swords are forged. He has
said what others had said (before). As for the belly or innards of a
famished bird, iron, having been cut, is heated like cinders and placed
before the ostrich, so that all the dirt is removed and goes to the belly of
the bird, and the iron becomes clear and worthy of being made into a
blade. It is then pounded and polished with a furbishing instrument.
Those who have seen the sight say that the ostrich gobbles up the hot
iron, but immediately defecates it.
I have heard from some people about shabarqan that the Russians
and the Saqalibans cut iron into small fragments. These fragments or
grains they add to flour which they feed to ducks. Once the ducks have
defecated them having eaten them, they repeat the same process several
times. Having been roasted, it is annealed and swords are cast from it.
