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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