Before You Rise From Your Place

The first offer was made by ʿifrītun min al-jinn. ʿIfrīt is a name given to somebody who has excelled in his field and reached the highest levels; it is called ʿifrīt. So ʿifrīt min al-jinn, an ʿifrīt of the jinn, is a jinn who is at the highest levels of power among the jinn; you call that jinn ʿifrīt. So he is not just a jinn, but he is an ʿifrīt from the jinn — a powerful jinn. And the word nowadays in Arabic has always been used in reference to jinn, but in the Arabic language it could mean somebody who has excelled and reached a very high level in that particular field.

An ʿifrīt from the jinn made an offer. He said: I will bring it to you before you rise from your place, and verily, I am indeed strong and trustworthy for such work. His credentials, his resume, was that I am strong and trustworthy, and I can bring it to you before you rise up from your council.

It is said that Sulaymān used to sit in majlis al-qaḍāʾ, his government seat, his throne; he used to sit in it from Fajr until Ẓuhr. So, depending on when this offer was made, we can know that it is a few hours. And from Yemen to Jerusalem is maybe four hours' flight by aeroplane — four or five hours; that is how long it would take by air. So this ʿifrīt was around that speed; Allah knows exactly how long it was, but they say that he used to sit between Fajr and Ẓuhr. Even though, according to the standard of that time, this was something that was out of the reach of anyone — to bring it in a few hours, when the methods of transport in their time were the horse and the camel.