Persian Gulf, tribes of all tongues and religions hastened to find the key of paradise in the faith in the “One God who has no fellow.” When in the tenth year of the Hegira, Mohammed, with his nine wives, proceeded on his last pilgrimage to Mecca, which was to serve the Moslems for all future times as a pattern and example, 40,000 (or according to some accounts as many as 114,000) of the faithful accompanied him. On this pilgrimage the suffering condition of the prophet first became manifest. With great effort he passed seven times round the Kaaba, and as he did so he prayed: “O Lord, prosper us in this life and the next, and preserve us from the pains of hell.” The unnatural agitations and paroxysms of his soul, the great physical exertions, the insidious poison of Khaibar, and finally his grief at the loss of his young son Ibrahim, whom, to his extreme joy, the Egyptian slave Maria had borne to him in the previous year and on whom he had set all his hopes--all these things undermined his health and hastened his end. The laments into which he broke out at sight of the child’s corpse already contained a foreboding of his own approaching end. “I am grieved at thy loss,” he said, “mine eye weeps and my heart is sad, yet will I utter no lament which may anger the Lord; were I not convinced that I should follow thee, my grief would be inconsolable, but we are God’s and shall return to him.” [Sidenote: [632 A.D.]] Three months after his return Mohammed was overtaken in the house of his spouse, Aisha, by an illness which lasted from eight to fourteen days. Often a fierce fever would rob him of consciousness, but often again he had hours of lucidity which he spent in converse with Aisha, his favourite daughter Fatima, the only one of his children who survived her father, and with the friends and relatives who visited him. Besides this, although already extremely ill, he would still go into the neighbouring mosque and speak words of admonition and farewell to the assembled people. As his weakness increased he allowed the prayers to be spoken by Abu Bekr, but was still always present. On the last day he seemed better, so that all save Aisha left him. But soon his illness returned with renewed severity. Before he lost consciousness he gave his slaves their freedom, caused the six or seven dinars[33] which he had in his house to be given to the poor, and then prayed, “God support me in the death struggle.” Aisha had sent for her father and his other followers, but before they arrived he expired in the arms of his favourite wife. His last words were: “To the glorious comrades in paradise.”