16. We were told by my father, may Allah granrt him mercy, that he said: We were told by Sa’d bin Abdullah, from Ahmad bin Muhammed bin Isa, from Abbas bin Ma’ruf, from Ali bin Mahziyar, from Muhammed bin Huss’ain, from Muhammed bin Fudail, from al-‘Azrami, that he said:

I was with Abu Abdillah, peace be upon him, in the home (of his), sitting under the drain, while one man was quarreling with another man, and one of them was saying to his companion: By Allah, do you not know where the wind runs from? When he had said that much to him, Abu Abdillah, peace be upon him, said to him: And do you know from where the winds runs? He said: No, but I hear the people say. I then said to Abu Abdillah, peace be upon him: From where does the wind run, may I be sacrificed for you? He said: Indeed, the wind is constrained under this Levantine pillar, and when Allah, Exalted and Glorious is He, wants to send off some of it, He makes it come out: if it is (to be towards the) south, it is south; if it is (to be towards the) north, it is north; if it is (to be) cast fiercely, it is cast fiercely; and if it is (to be) mild, it is mild. He then said: The sign of that is that you still see this pillar moving during winter and summer, continuously, at the night along with the day.