12 illustration(s) from this book
We must now describe what is _beneath_ our earth.--It has already been
said, that this is the first, or highest, of seven earths, which are all
of equal width and thickness, and at equal distances apart. Each of
these earths has occupants. The occupants of the first are men, genii,
brutes, &c.: the second is occupied by the suffocating wind that
destroyed the infidel tribe of 'Ád: the third, by the stones of Jahennem
(or Hell), mentioned in the Ḳur-án, in these words, "the fuel of which
is men and stones:"[30] the fourth, by the sulphur of Jahennem: the
fifth, by its serpents: the sixth, by its scorpions, in colour and size
like black mules, and with tails like spears: the seventh, by Iblees and
his troops.[31] Whether these several earths are believed to be
connected with each other by any means, and if so, how, we are not
expressly informed; but, that they are supposed to be so is evident.
With respect to our earth in particular, as some think, it is said that
it is supported by a rock, with which the mountains of Ḳáf communicate
by means of veins or roots; and that, when God desires to effect an
earthquake at a certain place, He commands the mountain [or rock] to
agitate the vein that is connected with that place.[32]--But there is
another account, describing our earth as upheld by certain successive
supports of inconceivable magnitude, which are under the seventh earth;
leaving us to infer that the seven earths are in some manner connected
together. This account, as inserted in the work of one of the writers
above quoted, is as follows:--The earth [under which appellation are
here understood the seven earths] was, it is said, originally unstable;
"therefore God created an angel of immense size and of the utmost