In fact, legends sprang up that made a Moslem holy family out of Mohammed, the two boys, and their mother, Fatima, who was further honored by being entitled “The Lady of Paradise”; but, unfortunately for his beatific visions concerning Al-Hasan and Al-Hosein--who frequently entertained themselves by clambering upon their grandfather’s broad back while he was bowed in prayer--they turned out to be scurvy fellows who excelled only in incompetence and cowardice. It may be that Mohammed had a premonition of his imminent death. He decided, at all events, to make a “Farewell Pilgrimage” to Mecca in March, 632, so that he might for the last time feast his eyes on that sacred citadel and undergo the solemn rites of the Greater Pilgrimage--a thing he had not done since the Hegira. He first took a careful bath, then mounted Al-Kaswa, and, accompanied by his entire harem and one hundred votive camels, set forth on the long journey. Having meticulously and painfully performed the prescribed gyrations and genuflections, he cast some small stones at the “Devil’s corner”--a spot near Mecca where Abraham was reputed to have met and conquered Satan--and concluded his toilsome duties by delivering a notable speech. After making many additions to, and revisions upon, the already numberless regulations which he had been formulating for more than twenty years, he concluded with these words: “Verily, I have fulfilled my mission. I have left that amongst you--a plain command, the Book of God, and manifest Ordinances--which, if ye hold fast, ye shall never go astray.” Then, turning his eyes heavenward, he exclaimed: “O Lord! I have delivered my message and discharged my Ministry.” “Yea,” came the deep-throated voice of the throng that hemmed him in, “yea, verily thou hast.” “O Lord!” he continued, unmindful of the pious interruption, “I beseech Thee bear Thou witness unto it.” Returning straightway to Mecca, he encircled the Kaba seven times; thence he went to Zemzem and, having drunk part of the contents of a pitcher filled with its holy water, he rinsed his mouth and asked that the water still remaining in the vessel should be poured back into the well. After abiding three more days at Mecca, he departed from it forever and ambled by easy stages back to Medina. IV