This is part of what our Master—Exalted is His Power—manifested in reviving the dead and resurrecting decayed bones, as recorded by the people of transmission and narrations. He has many more such instances which will come in the chapter containing the mention of the Heavenly Miracles. We have only presented here what establishes the proof for the purpose we have adopted and the path we have intended.

The Returning of the Sun from the West and the Speaking of the Whale of Dhu al-Nun in the Euphrates, and the Returning of the Sun in Babylon and on the Day of the Trench:

As for the returning of the sun from the west:

(161) Among such instances is what my master and sheikh Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn al-Hasan—may God be pleased with him—narrated to me by his chain of transmission to Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari, peace be upon him, who said: Our Master Amir Almuminin, Mighty is His Might, returned from fighting the Khawarij and, upon reaching Babylon, he encamped there. After his arrival, he mounted his mule, carrying the staff of the Messenger of God, Mighty is His Might, and went to the bank of the Euphrates. He stood over it and placed his foot—without comparison, Exalted and Loftiest is He—upon the hump of the mule, then drew me near and made me stand by his side, while the people stood around him.

He then struck the Euphrates with the staff he held, and the middle of the Euphrates split until the earth and the pebbles became visible. Then our Master cried out: "O Nun!" and behold, a great fish approached from the Euphrates and appeared before him. He said to it: "O fish, speak!" The fish spoke immediately with an eloquent tongue understood by the young and the old, saying: "Yes, O Amir Almuminin, I am Nun, the whale of Jonah (Yunus) ibn Matta, whom I swallowed. I was compassionate and gentle with him; I did not weaken a bone of his nor scratch his skin. He had doubted and suspected, saying: 'Truly, your name and you are the same [in essence].'