The poet's reference to Ḥimyar is not historically accurate. It was only after the destruction of the Dyke and the dispersion of the Sabæans who built it[52] that the Ḥimyarites, with their capital Ẓafár (at a later period, Ṣan‘á) became the rulers of Yemen. [Sidenote: The Tubba‘s.] The first Tubba‘, by which name the Ḥimyarite kings are known to Muḥammadan writers, was Ḥárith, called al-Rá’ish, _i.e._, the Featherer, because he 'feathered' his people's nest with the booty which he brought home as a conqueror from India and Ádharbayján.[53] Of the Tubba‘s who come after him some obviously owe their place in the line of Ḥimyar to genealogists whose respect for the Koran was greater than their critical acumen. Such a man of straw is Ṣa‘b Dhu ’l-Qarnayn (Ṣa‘b the Two-horned). [Sidenote: Dhu ’l-Qarnayn.] The following verses show that he is a double of the mysterious Dhu ’l-Qarnayn of Koranic legend, supposed by most commentators to be identical with Alexander the Great[54]:-- "Ours the realm of Dhu ’l-Qarnayn the glorious, Realm like his was never won by mortal king. Followed he the Sun to view its setting When it sank into the sombre ocean-spring; Up he clomb to see it rise at morning, From within its mansion when the East it fired; All day long the horizons led him onward,[55] All night through he watched the stars and never tired. Then of iron and of liquid metal He prepared a rampart not to be o'erpassed, Gog and Magog there he threw in prison Till on Judgment Day they shall awake at last."[56] [Sidenote: Bilqís.] Similarly, among the Tubba‘s we find the Queen of Sheba, whose adventures with Solomon are related in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Koran. Although Muḥammad himself did not mention her name or lineage, his interpreters were equal to the occasion and revealed her as Bilqís, the daughter of Sharáḥíl (Sharaḥbíl). [Sidenote: As‘ad Kámil.] The national hero of South Arabian legend is the Tubba‘ As‘ad Kámil, or, as he is sometimes called, Abú Karib. Even at the present day, says Von Kremer, his memory is kept alive, and still haunts the ruins of his palace at Ẓafár. "No one who reads the Ballad of his Adventures or the words of exhortation which he addressed on his deathbed to his son Ḥassán can escape from the conviction that here we have to do with genuine folk-poetry--fragments of a South Arabian legendary cycle, the beginnings of which undoubtedly reach back to a high antiquity."[57] I translate here the former of these pieces, which may be entitled THE BALLAD OF THE THREE WITCHES.[58] "Time brings to pass full many a wonder Whereof the lesson thou must ponder. Whilst all to thee seems ordered fair, Lo, Fate hath wrought confusion there. Against a thing foredoomed to be Nor cunning nor caution helpeth thee. Now a marvellous tale will I recite; Trust me to know and tell it aright!