Allah the Almighty said: {And by the stars, they are guided} [Quran 16:16], and He said: {And it is He who placed for you the stars that you may be guided by them in the darknesses of the land and the sea} [Quran 6:97]. The most definitive of these is the North Pole (Polaris). It is a hidden star around which stars circle like the butterfly of a mill; at one of its ends are the two Farqadan (the two stars of the Little Bear) and at the other is the Jadi (the Pole Star), and between them are small stars patterned like the pattern of a butterfly, three above and three below. This butterfly rotates around the Pole, spinning like the butterfly of a mill around its spindle, once every day and night—half in the night and half in the day. Thus, at sunrise, the Jadi is in the position where the Farqadan were at its sunset. It is possible to use them to determine the hours and times of the night, as well as the seasons, for those who know them and understand how they rotate. Around it are the Banat Na'sh (the Plough/Big Dipper), which, from the side nearest the Farqadan, rotate around it. The Pole does not depart from its place at all times, nor does it change, just as the spindle of a mill does not change by its rotation. It is said: it changes slightly, a change that is not perceptible and has no effect. It is a hidden star that one with sharp vision can see when the moon is not rising, but when the light of the moon becomes strong, it disappears. If you turn your back to it in the Syrian lands, you are facing the Ka'bah. It is said: it deviates in Damascus and nearby areas slightly toward the East, and the closer it is to the West, the greater its deviation. If one is in Harran and surrounding areas, it is balanced, and one places the Pole directly behind one's back, perfectly aligned without deviation. It is said: the most balanced Qiblah is the Qiblah of Harran. If one is in Iraq, one places the Pole in line with the back of one's right ear at its height, and thus one is facing the door of the Ka'bah toward the Maqam (Station of Ibrahim). Whenever one has his back to the Farqadan or the Jadi, while one of them is high and the other is low, in a balanced state, it is the same as having one's back to the Pole. If one has his back to it in any other state, one is facing the general direction, but if one has his back to the eastern of the two, he is slightly deviated to the West, and if one has his back to the western one, he is slightly deviated to the East. If one has his back to the Banat Na'sh, he is also facing the general direction, though his deviation is greater.

Section: The mansions of the sun and the moon are twenty-eight, which are: Al-Saratan, Al-Butayn, Al-Thurayya, Al-Dabaran, Al-Haq'ah, Al-Han'ah, Al-Dhir'a, Al-Nathrah, Al-Tarf, Al-Jabha, Al-Zubra, Al-Sarfa, Al-'Awwa', Al-Simak, Al-Ghafr, Al-Zubana, Al-Iklil, Al-Qalb, Al-Shawla, Al-Na'a'im, Al-Balda, Sa'd al-Dhabih, Sa'd Bula', Sa'd al-Su'ud, Sa'd al-Akhbiya, Al-Far' al-Muqaddam, Al-Far' al-Mu'akhkhar, and Batn al-Hut. Fourteen of these are Syrian, which rise from the middle of the East or slightly inclined toward the North; the first of them is Al-Saratan and the last of them is Al-Simak. Fourteen are Yemeni, which rise from the East or towards the southern direction; the first of them is Al-Ghafr and the last of them is Batn al-Hut. For every star among the Syrian ones, there is a counterpart among the Yemeni ones; when one rises, its counterpart sets. The moon descends into one of these mansions every night, close to it, and then moves on the second night to the next mansion. Allah the Almighty said: {And the moon, We have decreed for it mansions, until it returns like the old curved stalk of a date palm} [Quran 36:39]. The sun descends into each mansion for thirteen days, and its return to the mansion it descended into occurs after the completion of one full cycle of the solar year. Among these mansions, there are fourteen between sunset and sunrise, and from sunrise to sunset there are the same number. The time of Fajr (dawn) consists of two mansions, and the time of Maghrib (sunset) is one mansion, which is half of a sixth of the darkness of the night. The darkness of the night is twelve mansions, and all of them rise from the East and set in the West, except that the first of the Syrian ones and the last of the Yemeni ones rise from the middle of the East, such that if one places the rising star among them aligned with his left shoulder, he would be...