Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/117

 and the evidence for similar facts relating to Christian antiquity is placed in the strongest point of view.

According to Sale, the chapters are 114 in number, with various titles prefixed; some appear whimsical, as the Chapters of the Cow, the Bee, the Ant, the Spider, the Wrapped up, the Fig, the Congealed Blood, the Elephant, so designated from that particular portion where the word occurs being revealed first in point of time, though the allusion in the narrative seems merely incidental: some chapters are dated from Mecca, others from Medina, some partly from each, and others ambiguous. Certain characters are prefixed to twenty-eight chapters, containing, according to the Musulman doctors, some great mystery. The 54th, 55th, and 77th, have a verse intercalated, or repeated, by way of burthen. All begin in the auspicatory form: "In the name of