[62] "The death of Jaafar was heroic and memorable; he lost his right hand, he shifted the standard to his left, the left was severed from his body, he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honorable wounds. 'Advance,' cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place, 'advance with confidence; either victory or paradise is our own.' The lance of a Roman decided the alternative; but the falling standard was rescued by Kaled, the proselyte of Mecca; nine swords were broken in his hand; and his valor withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. To console the afflicted relatives of his kinsman Jaafar, Mahomet represented that, in paradise, in exchange for the arms he had lost, he had been furnished with a pair of wings, resplendent with the blushing glories of the ruby, and with which he was become the inseparable companion of the archangel Gabriel, in his volitations through the regions of eternal bliss. Hence, in the catalogue of the martyrs he has been denominated _Jaaffer teyaur_ ('the winged Jaaffer')."--_Milman's Gibbon_, 1. [63] Mahomet's victims were camels; they may, however, be sheep or goats, but in this case they must be male; if camels or kine, female.--_Sale, Prelim. Dis._, p. 120. [64] There are many ridiculous stories told of Mahomet, which, being notoriously fabulous, are not introduced here. Two of the most popular are: That a tame pigeon used to whisper in his ear the commands of God. [The pigeon is said to have been taught to come and peck some grains of rice out of Mahomet's ear, to induce people to think that he then received by the ministry of an angel the several articles of the _Koran_.] The other is that after his death he was buried at Medina, and his coffin suspended, by divine agency or magnetic power, between the ceiling and floor of the temple.