Note 098
From Chapter 50 of the Decline & Fall

The nocturnal journey is circumstantially related by Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed, c. 19, p. 33), who wishes to think it a vision; by Prideaux (p. 31 - 40), who aggravates the absurdities; and by Gagnier (tom. i. p. 252 - 343), who declares, from the zealous Al Jannabi, that to deny this journey, is to disbelieve the Koran. Yet the Koran without naming either heaven, or Jerusalem, or Mecca, has only dropped a mysterious hint: Laus illi qui transtulit servum suum ab oratorio Haram ad oratorium remotissimum (Koran, c. 17, v. 1; in Maracci, tom. ii. p. 407; for Sale's version is more licentious). A slender basis for the aerial structure of tradition.

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