10. Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Walid رضي الله عنه said: Muhammad ibn Yahya al-`Attar said, on the authority of al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan ibn Aban, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Auramah, on the authority of Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Maythami, on the authority of Abu alHasan al-Sha`rif, on the authority of Sa`d ibn Tarif; on the authority of Asbagh ibn Nubatah that Ibn al-Kawwa’ came to the Commander of the Faithful عليه السلام and said: “O Commander of the Faithful! By Allah, verily there is a verse in the Book of Allah, the Mighty and High, that has destroyed my heart, making me doubt my religion.” `Ali عليه السلام said to him, “May your mother be bereaved of you and be deprived of you! What is that verse?” He replied, “The Word of Allah, the Exalted: The birds with expanded wings, each knows its own prayer, and its own glorification.” Imam `Ali عليه السلام responded, O son of al-Kawwa’! Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, has created angels in different shapes. There is an angel of Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, in the shape of a rooster, which is hoarse and gray. Its talons are in the seventh lowly earth and its dual comb is below the Empyrean. It has two wings; one in the East and the other in the West. One is of fire and the other is of ice. When the time of prayer comes, it stands on its talons and raises its neck from below the Empyrean, and then it flaps its two wings like the roosters in your houses do. Neither the one that is from fire melts the ice, nor does the one form the ice put out the fire. At that point it calls: I bear witness that there is no got but Allah, He Alone, there is no associate with Him; and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Master of the Prophets and his successor is the Master of the Successors and that Allah is the Most Praised, the Most Holy, Lord of the Angels and the Spirit (Ruh). He said: Then the roosters in your homes flap their wings and answer him in his call, and that is the Word of the Exalted: The birds with expanded wings, each knows its own prayer and its own glorification” from the roosters in the earth.
