master of the whole city, and from thence to have armed his followers in order to reduce the rest of Arabia. To this purpose it was that he so often inculcated to them, that all who received the faith he preached, must fight for it, and that his doctrine was to be propagated by the sword: but having no hopes of accomplishing this his design at Mecca, his thoughts were employed on going to some other town that might be more commodious for carrying on his projects. With this view he took a journey to Tayif, a town about forty miles from Mecca, where one of his uncles resided, who had a very considerable interest among the inhabitants. Under his protection he thought to have spread his delusions, and at length to have got possession of the place; but after a month’s stay, not having been able to gain one proselyte, he returned to Mecca, there to wait a more favourable opportunity of pursuing the schemes he had projected.
About this time his first wife died, after she had lived with him two and twenty years; he married two other wives, and soon after he took a third; whereby making himself son-in-law to three of the principal men of his party, he attached them the more firmly to his interest.
In the twelfth year of his pretended mission is placed the Misra, that is, his famous night’s journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to Heaven; of which he gives the following account:
One night as he lay in bed with his best beloved wife, he heard a knocking at the door, whereupon arising and opening it, he found there the angel Gabriel with seventy pair of wings expan-
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