As our sheikh and exemplar the Lord Abu Abd Allah al-Khasibi—may God ennoble his station—stated: their names in the era of the Messenger—exalted be his glory—were: The Nakib of Nakibs Abu al-Haytham Malik ibn al-Tayyihan al-Ash'ali, al-Bara ibn Ma'rur al-Ansari, al-Mundhir ibn Amr ibn Kannas al-Sa'idi, Rafi' ibn Malik ibn al-Ajlan al-Zuraqi, Asad ibn Husayn al-Ash'ali [in some manuscripts: Usayd ibn Hudayr], al-Abbas ibn Ubada ibn Nadla al-Ansari, Ubada ibn al-Samit al-Nawfali, Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn Hizam al-Ansari, Salim ibn Umayr al-Khazraji, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, Rafi' ibn Warqa, and Bilal ibn Rabah al-Shanawi—peace be upon them. They are the twelve Zodiac constellations: (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces); they are the "houses" of the five planets.
The two luminaries we previously mentioned, Leo and Cancer, are the houses of the Sun and the Moon. The ten [remaining] Zodiac signs are the houses of the five planets, with two signs assigned to each planet according to the clarification of the philosophers to whom the science of the stars is attributed. Likewise, the Nukaba (Princes) number twenty-eight persons, neither decreasing nor increasing by one. They correspond to the twenty-eight Mansions of the Moon:
[Al-Sharatayn, al-Butayn, al-Thurayya, al-Dabaran, al-Haq'a, al-Han'a, al-Dhira', al-Nathra, al-Tarf, al-Jabha, al-Zubra, al-Sarf, al-Awa, al-Simak, al-Ghafr, al-Zubanaya, al-Iklil, al-Qalb, al-Shawla, al-Na'a'im, al-Balda, al-Dhabih, Sa'd al-Bul'a, Sa'd al-Su'ud, Sa'd al-Akhbiya, al-Fargh al-Muqaddam, al-Fargh al-Mu'akhkhar, and Batn al-Hut (also known as al-Risha al-Mathbut)].
As for their names in the era of Lord Muhammad—exalted be his glory—they were: [Abu Ayyub Khalid ibn Zayd al-Ansari, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Qays ibn Sa'd ibn Ubada al-Khazraji, Sa'd ibn Malik al-Ansari, Abu al-Tufayl 'Amir ibn Wathila, Zayd ibn Nufay' (Nufayl), Uthman ibn Hunayf, Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman, Amr ibn Dhi Khidan, Sahm ibn Ammar, Jundub al-Ansari, Abu Juwayriya, Abu Sinan al-Ansari,