The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments

mountains of Ḳáf, which bound the Circumambient Ocean, and form a circular barrier round the whole of our earth, are described by interpreters of the Ḳur-án as composed of green chrysolite, like the green tint of the sky.[26] It is the colour of these mountains, said the Prophet, that imparts a greenish hue to the sky.[27] It is said, in a tradition, that beyond these mountains are other countries; one of gold, seventy of silver, and seven of musk, all inhabited by angels, and each country ten thousand years' journey in length, and the same in breadth.[28] Some say that beyond it are creatures unknown to any but God:[29] but the general opinion is, that the mountains of Ḳáf terminate our earth, and that no one knows what is beyond them. They are the chief abode of the Jinn, or Genii.--Such is a concise account of the earth which we inhabit, according to the notions of the Arabs.