164 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
communicated the revelation to Mahomed. Accordingly the Coran is a 
collection of numberless miracles; indeed every verse contains a wonder. 
At a later period, the Sunna, embodying oral precepts and traditions, was 
added to the Coran, but its introduction gave rise to two hostile religious 
parties, the Sunnztes who receive the Sunna, among whom are the Turks ; 
and the Schzites, who reject the Sunna as apocryphal. The Persians belong 
to the latter sect. 
The Caaba, or national temple of the Mahomedans, erected at Mecca, is 
an object of the highest veneration, and every faithful believer is expected 
to perform at least one pilgrimage to its sacred shrine. The priests are 
called Jmaums, and though, as above remarked, monachism is prohibited, 
there is, besides the priests proper, a kind of monks known by the name of 
Dervises, who, however, may be considered as travelling priests or mission- 
aries. 
Of the many marvellous exploits which the disciples of the prophet are 
fond of attributing to him, none can exceed in extravagance his wonderful 
night journey to the seventh heaven. Mounted upon a resplendent steed 
Al Borak (the lightning), he first rode out of the temple of Mecca to Jeru- 
salem. Thence he ascended through measureless space, in company with 
the archangel Gabriel, to the seventh heaven, where he was saluted by 
patriarchs, prophets, and angels. Beyond this he beheld the throne of Allah 
himself, whose face was covered with twenty thousand veils (for no man 
could have looked on his undimmed glory and live) and was touched by 
the Almighty, who placed his hand upon his shoulder, which caused a 
freezing cold to run through the very marrow of his bones. After receiving 
several communications from Allah he descended by the ladder of light to 
Jerusalem, where he found Al Borak fastened as he had left him. He 
mounted the saddle, and returned to Mecca, having accomplished in a few 
hours a journey which would have required an ordinary traveller many 
thousand years. 
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