Abu Bekr died on August 22, A.D. 634, having reigned two years and three months.[188] His body was laid out, in pursuance of his own wish, by the loving hands of Asma, and of Abd al Rahmân, his son; and he was wound in the same clothes in which he died; ‘for,’ said he, ‘new clothes befit the living, but old the mouldering body.’[189] The same Companions that bore the Prophet’s bier bore also that of Abu Bekr; and they laid him in the same grave, the Caliph’s head resting by his Master’s shoulder. Omar performed the funeral service, praying, as was customary, over the bier. The funeral procession had not far to go; it had only to cross the area in front of the Great Mosque; for Abu Bekr died in the house appointed for him by Mahomet opposite his own, and looking out, like it, upon the open court of the Sanctuary.[190] [Sidenote: _Abu Bekr’s character._ Simple life at Al Sunh.] During the greater part of his Caliphate, he had occupied that house. For the first six months, indeed, after Mahomet’s death, he continued to live chiefly, as he had done before, at Al Sunh, a suburb of Upper Medîna. Here he inhabited a simple dwelling made of palm stems, with the family of Habîba, the wife whom he married when he came to Medîna, and who was with child when he died, and bore him a daughter shortly after. Every morning he rode or walked to the Great Mosque, where Mahomet had lived and ruled, for the discharge of the business of the State, and to perform the daily prayers, Omar presiding in his absence. For the more important service of Friday, when a speech or sermon was delivered, he stayed at home to dye his hair and beard, and dress more carefully; and so did not appear till the time of midday prayer. In this primitive home, as elsewhere, he preserved the severe simplicity of early life, and even fed and milked the goats of the household. At the first also he continued to maintain himself by merchandise; but finding it interfere with the proper burdens of the State, he consented to forego all other occupation, and to receive a yearly allowance of six thousand dirhems for his household charges.[191] [Sidenote: Removes his dwelling to the Great Mosque.]