George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)
5. The descent of Jesus on earth. They pretend that he is to descend near the white tower to the east of Damascus, when the people are returned from the taking of Constantinople; that he is to embrace the Mohammedan religion, marry a wife, get children, kill Antichrist, and at length dye after forty years, or according to others twenty four years 1, continuance on earth. Under him they say there will be great security, and plenty in the world, all hatred and malice being laid aside; when lions and camels, bears and sheep shall live in peace, and a child shall play with serpents unhurt 2.
6. War with the Jews; of whom the Mohammedans are to make a prodigious slaughter, the very trees and stones discovering such of them as hide themselves, except only the tree called Gharkad, which is the tree of the Jews.
7. The eruption of Gog and Magog, or, as they are called in the east, Yâjûj and Mâjûd; of whom many things are related in the Korân 3, and the traditions of Mohammed. These barbarians, they tell us, having passed the lake of Tiberias, which the vanguard of their vast army will drink dry, will come to Jerusalem, and there greatly distress Jesus and his companions; till at his request God will destroy them, and fill the earth with their carcasses, which after some time God will send birds to carry away, at the prayers of Jesus and his followers. Their bows, arrows, and quivers the Moslems will burn for seven years together 4; and at last God will send a rain to cleanse the earth, and to make it fertile.
8. A smoke, which shall fill the whole earth 5.
9. An eclipse of the moon. Mobammed is reported to have said, that there would be three eclipses before the last hour; one to be seen in the east, another in the west, and the third in Arabia.
10. The returning of the Arabs to the worship of Allât and al Uzza, and the rest of their ancient idols; after the decease of every one in whose heart there was faith equal to a grain of mustard seed, none but the very worst of men being left alive. For God, they say, will send a cold odoriferous wind; blowing from Syria Damascena, which shall sweep away the souls of all the faithful, and the Korân itself, so that men will remain in the grossest ignorance for an hundred years.
11. The discovery of a vast heap of gold and silver by the retreating of the Euphrates, which will be the destruction of many.
