FEMALE PILGRIMS. 429 guished females was Umm el Kheir, a freed woman of the noble family of 'Agyl, and a native of Basora. She visited Jerusalem, where she died about the year 752. Her tomb is still to be seen on the Mount of Olives, in a retired corner south of the Chapel of the Ascension ; and is much frequented by pilgrims. It is related"that Umm el Kheir} one day, in the course of her devotions, cried out, *' Oh, God, wilt thou consume with fire a heart that loves thee so ?" When a mysterious voice replied to her, " Nay, we act not thus; entertain not such evil suspicions of us." The precept, " Conceal your virtues as you would your vices," is also attributed to the same saint. Safiyah bint Hai, known as " The Mother of the Faithful," was amongst the earliest pilgrims to Jerusalem, having visited it with the army of 'Omar. To her is attributed the tradition that the division of the wicked from the good on the Day of Judgment will take place from the top of the Mount of Olives. She died about the year 670. An anecdote related of the celebrated Sufyân eth Thori, affords a good example of the devotion and fervour of these early Mohammedan pilgrims. He is said to have repeated the whole of the Coran at one sitting in the Cubbet es Sakhrah, and on one occasion, when he had prayed until he was completely exhausted, he bought a single plantain and ate it in the shade of the mosque, apologising for even this indulgence by the remark, " The ass can do more work when he has got his fodder." He died at Bosrah A.D. 777. Al Imam es Shàfii', one of the most learned of the Mohammedan doctors, and the founder of one of the chief sects into which the religion is divided. He was born in 767 A.D., the same year in which Abu Hanifeh, the founder of the Hanefite sect, died. His works, which are very voluminous, and considered by his followers as next in authority to the Coran itself, are said to have been all written within the space of four years. The following fatwa, or legal decision, attributed to him