Mouse The mouse symbolizes the dreamer’s household: those who dwell in his house—his wife and children, et cetera—a debauched woman, or, some say, a devilish Jewish woman or a Jew, as related by Al-Nabulsi. It could also refer to a thief. Many mice means profit and welfare. Mice of the same color allude to women. The rat is a digging thief.
• Dreaming of a mouse playing in one’s house: Prosperity will increase because, according to the ancient Arabs, mice invade only those places that are prosperous. And only people who are not hungry can afford to play.
• Seeing mice in one’s house: Dangerous women will enter that house.
• A mouse leaving one’s house: Livelihood and blessings will decrease.
• Owning a mouse: Will have a servant because, like servants, mice share the food of the master.
• White and black mice coming and going: Long life, as the white indicate the days and the black the nights. To borrow the expressions of Ibn Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Wedding • On the contrary, a wedding party in which dancing or any form of entertainment takes place heralds a tragedy. A particularly bad omen is the zaghrouda, the strident, long-drawn, and trilling shrill produced by Arab women by moving the tongue with the rapidity of the drumstick of an electric bell as a manifestation of joy. One zaghrouda means minor worries.
• A person giving a wedding party: Catastrophe.
• Being invited to a wedding ceremony: Joy and happiness, provided no food or banquet is seen.
• Organizing or looking after the preparations of a wedding party: Some members of the dreamer’s family will attend his funeral.
• If the wedding ceremony takes place in a house where a person is ill: The latter will die. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Silver But ancient Arab interpreters were divided about the interpretation of dreams involving silver. To some finding silver tablets or bars meant joy or that the dreamer would procure some in reality. To others it meant worries and sorrow; it all depended on the personality of the dreamer himself. According to Al-Kirmani, genuine and intact silver meant some truthful news would arrive. Broken silver is a reference to misleading information and animosity.
• Finding some molten piece of silver or receiving it from someone: The dreamer will marry a woman from that person’s folk.
• A golden or silver salt cellar: An agreeable woman, as in Arabic salt is melh and agreeable is maliha. But silver is always better than gold. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Grape Black grapes during the right season symbolize fear and disease; otherwise they mean trouble and worries. They are also a harbinger of cold weather. Grapes were believed by the ancient Arabs to be harmful. They also thought that no benefit could be derived from the black color and hated black grapes in any case. Among other things, they argued that the grape was originally white, placed near the son of Nuh (Noah). When his father cursed him, it suddenly turned black. Certain dream interpreters felt that the black grape meant nothing but money that will not last. Separate from the bunch, it symbolized extreme fear or chills. Others regarded the black grape as a not so bad dream, in view of a verse in the Holy Quran: “And of the fruits of the date-palm, and grapes, whence ye derive strong drink and (also) good nourishment. Lo! therein, is indeed a portent for people who have sense.” (“Al-Nahl” [The Bees], verse 67.) They also thought so because the Prophet Zakareyyah (Zacharia) used to find it at Mariam’s (Mary’s) place. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Bee A bee has different meanings depending on whether the dreamer is a civilian, farmer, or military man, for bees produce honey, which is something sweet, useful, and beneficial and, according to a verse of the Holy Quran, a remedy for people. Paradoxically, bees could also be an allusion to disease, by association of ideas. At the same time, bees have a clear-cut hierarchy and are highly disciplined, tenacious, and toiling creatures. They symbolize the military or the Muslim army (once one of the most powerful in the world). In any case, a bee in a dream is a laborious and very gifted person in terms of earning his or her livelihood and whose companions can only benefit from him, but a dangerous person as well. For the ancient Arabs, a bee symbolized the Bedouin or, in abstract terms, perseverance, gains, and the accumulation of wealth. And since Muslims believe that bees are inspired by God to follow a certain order and discipline in excelling in the production of various types of honey with different aromas, they are thought to symbolize knowledge or know-how, division of labour or categorization, erudition, and the authoring of literary or scientific works. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Milk Milking an Arabian she camel in a dream means working in an Arab country. Milking an Asian Bactrian camel in a dream means working in another country. If blood comes out of the glands of a she-camel instead of milk in a dream, it means deviation from Allah's path, or it could represent a tyranny. If a venom flows from one's glands instead of milk in the dream, it means earning unlawful money. If a merchant, or a business man milks any milk producing animal in a dream, it means profits. Sucking the gland of a pregnant she-camel, one, two, or three times in a dream means steadfastness in one's religion, performing one's obligatory prayers, distributing charity, acquiring knowledge and wisdom. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Garment If one sees himself wearing a silken raiment and portraying a religious jurist in a dream, it means that he is a seeker of worldly titles who may invent something new. Announcing lost and found garments in a dream means attending a pilgrimage to Mecca or a journey to an Arab country. A woman wearing a thin garment in a dream represents her integrity, while if she is wearing a thick garment, it represents her labor and hardships. If one sees himself putting on a new garment after taking a ritual bath in a dream, it means prosperity or repayment of his debts. If one's new garment is torn and cannot be repaired in the dream, it means inability to bear children. If the garment can be repaired in the dream, it means that there is an evil spell over the person wearing it. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Palm tree Uprooting a palm tree in a dream also means a dead end to one's plans, or it could mean a dispute. A palm tree in a dream also represents one's paternal aunt. Palm trees in a dream also represent Arab women. If one sees a seedling become a big palm tree in a dream, it means that a child in that community will grow to be a great scholar. It also connotes that a weak person will grow strong. Seeing a palm tree in a dream also means longevity, a scholar, a teacher, children, a wife, a house, a property, a king, a year, new clothing, money, or bearing a child. To prune or trim a palm tree in a dream means that one's adversity at his work or related to his travels will be dispelled. (Also see Palmyra; Tree) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Breast • A young woman dreaming of having milk in her breast: Will conceive and deliver.
• An old woman dreaming of having milk in her breast: Will lose her money and become poor.
• The breast having lengthened till touching the belly: (1) If the dreamer is a little boy, he will die. (2) If the dreamer is a man, he is indulging in frivolous matters that arouse the wrath of God. (3) If the dreamer is a childless man, he will become poor and desolate. (4) If the dreamer is a woman, it means extreme sorrow because, says Ibn Siren, in their sorrow Arab women pull and scratch their breasts.
• Sucking a woman’s breast: Will get ill.
• The dreamer sucking the breast of his pregnant wife: She will give birth to a male child.
• A pregnant woman dreaming of sucking another lady’s breast: Will give birth to a girl. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Horse • A horse dying at a person’s hands or in his house: The death of such a person.
• Riding on a white-footed horse with a white fringe and all white harness while dressed as a full-fledged horseman: Will gain power and prestige, merit praise, and live secure from all enemies. A bay, roan, or reddish brown horse would be best if the dreamer were a combatant. The salamander (a color of Arab horses) refers to dignity and disease.
• Riding on a horse and making it run till it sweats: Will be overcome by passion and commit sins to earn your living. It is noteworthy that sweat emanating from running is an expenditure on some sinful matter, in view of the verse of the Holy Quran that reads: “Run (flee) not, but return to the good things of this life which were given you, and to your homes, in order that ye may be called to account. They said: Alas for us! Woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers!” (“Al-Anbiyae” [The Prophets], verses 13–14.) Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Donkey • A donkey that goes along well or keeps the pace: The best of this world.
• A saddled donkey: A child with a golden spoon (born and living in prosperity).
• A donkey with a long tail: The dreamer’s empire or tradition will be preserved by his successors.
• Death of a donkey: The owner will die, will be isolated, or will lose his money and his business or his shop will be destroyed or he will be ousted from it. Otherwise, the slave who serves him or his father or grandfather who supported him will pass away, his endeavours will fade, or his master, who was under his spell will die, sell him, or go away. For a woman, her husband will divorce her, die, move away, or travel and leave her behind.
• A donkey whose owner is unknown and which, instead of obeying, keeps braying: An ignorant and loud person in view of a verse of the Holy Quran that reads as follows: “Be modest in thy bearing and subdue thy voice. Lo! the harshest of all voices is the voice of the ass.” (“Surat Luqman,” verse 19.) According to the ancient Arabs, it could also be a reference to Jews: “The likeness of those who are entrusted with the Law of Moses, yet apply it not, is as the likeness of the ass carrying books. Wretched is the likeness of folk who deny revelations of Allah. And Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” (“Surat Al-Jumuah” [The Congregation], verse 5.) Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Tree The tree symbolizes religion and sects in view of the allegory in the Holy Quran of the good tree (date palm) and the good words: “Seest thou not how Allah coineth a similitude: A goodly saying, as a goodly tree, its roots set firm, branches reaching into Heaven.” (“Ibrahim” [Abraham], verse 24.) Likewise, the Muslims Holy Prophet likened the good tree to the Muslim. The one he saw himself holding in a spiritual odyssey,52 he said, was the duty of praying, which he had brought to his followers. Ancient Arab dream interpreters said that whereas the tree referred to the man’s deeds, religion, or ego, its leaves symbolizes his character, its beauty his nice shape and clothing, its branches his brothers, relatives, folk, and beliefs, its heart his hidden essence and his secrets, its bark his appearance, skin, and all that he uses to adorn himself with, and its semen his faith, piety, assets, and life. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Home The distinction is very vague in Arabic between the words dar and bayt, both meaning “house” or “home.” But after consulting a knowledgeable colleague (a Moroccan ambassador and man of letters), the author assumes that dar is more likely to mean a house as a structure or an apartment block and bayt a room, an apartment, or simply home. However, in the ancient Arab texts the writer often jumps from one meaning to another, and I have taken real pain trying to disentangle them, as usual. Home symbolizes the man’s wife sheltered under his roof and to whom he goes, whence the expression “He went home.” Therefore, home and wife are synonyms. The door is her vagina or her face, the closet or the safe a maiden, like the dreamer’s daughter, whom he does not penetrate, as they are covered or hidden places in which he does not sleep. The servants quarters symbolize the servant (s). The place where cereals are stored is the mother, who used to keep the dreamer alive and let him grow by feeding him milk. The toilet represents those servants who are in charge of cleaning and washing or the dreamer’s wife, whom he embraces and penetrates when isolated, i.e., away from his children and the rest of the household. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Aqiq The same stone was used in ornamenting the Taj Mahal in India. The higher qualities of Aqiq (mostly found in anes and Khawlan, in North Yemen) are believed by Orientals to have certain properties, like the ability to slow down the movement of fluids in the body. If somebody is hurt, for instance, while carrying Aqiq or wearing it as a ring whose stone touches the skin, the blood is unlikely to ooze out of the wound. Some men also use it to avoid rapid ejaculation. I was told by one of the few remaining Aqiq craftsmen in North Yemen, a few years ago, that a rich Arab client believed by the craftsman to be a Saudi ambassador had proposed to pay some two hundred thousand dollars for one of those special rings, but his offer had been declined. In Sanaa, the capital of North Yemen, there is a stone that, I was told, was then in the custody of someone called Ahmad Al-Turki, who cannot sell it for its being a waqf (a property confined to public benefit, according to an Islamic code). That stone, called Al Fass Al Hanash (The Snake Stone), has the property of saving people from snakebites. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
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