12948 - Ibn Abi Hadir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "If I were in your presence, I would provide you with speech that would increase your insight regarding [the word] hami'ah (murky)." Ibn 'Abbas said: "What is it?" I said: "In what we record of the speech of Tubba' regarding what he mentioned of Dhu al-Qarnayn, in his devotion to knowledge and his pursuit of it:

'Dhu al-Qarnayn, 'Amr, was a Muslim, a king to whom kings humbled themselves and envied. He reached the Easts and the Wests, seeking the means of a kingdom from a wise, guided mentor. He saw the setting of the sun at its decline, in a spring of khalab (mud) and thath (black mud) that is harmad (black).'

Ibn 'Abbas said: "What is khalab?" I said: "The mud in their dialect." He said: "What is thath?" I said: "The murky water (al-ham'ah)." He said: "What is harmad?" I said: "Black." Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) called for a youth and said to him: "Write down what this man says."

12949 - From the path of Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), that he used to recite it as 'in a murky (hami'ah) spring.' Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I have never heard anyone recite it as it is in the Book of Allah except for Ibn 'Abbas, for we find it in the Torah: 'It sets in a black, murky (hami'ah) [spring].'"

12950 - From the path of Ibn Hadir, from Ibn 'Abbas, he said: "We were with Mu'awiyah, and he recited, 'sets in a hot (hamiyah) spring.' I said to him: 'We do not read it except as a murky (hami'ah) spring.' Mu'awiyah sent for Ka'b and said: 'Where do you find the sun sets in the Torah?' He said: 'As for Arabic, I have no knowledge of it, but I find in the Torah that the sun sets in water and mud.'"

12951 - From the path of 'Ali, from Ibn 'Abbas, regarding 'in a hot (hamiyah) spring,' he says: 'Hot.'

His saying: 'And found at it a people.'

12952 - From Ibn Jurayj regarding His saying: 'And found at it a people,' he said: "A city that has twelve thousand gates; were it not for the clamor of its people, people would hear the rumbling of the sun when it sets."