The people raised their heads, and their composure and intellects returned to them. The Lord—Glorified be His Might—then said: 'O brother of Himyar, there remains in your questioning one more thing you concealed: you intended to ask me about Iram of the Pillars—where is its location on earth? Here it is, O brother of Himyar! O Qays, open the latches of the trunk!'

Qays said: 'By Allah, there appeared from it Iram of the Pillars with all its descriptions, its rivers, its palaces, its tribes, its sand dunes, and everything that has ever been narrated concerning it.' The Himyarite exclaimed: 'By Allah, it is Iram of the Pillars itself! No doubt or suspicion remains; this which I have seen is it, by Allah! I had secretly intended to ask if you had knowledge of it, where it is located on earth, and for you to describe it to me—for its description is only known to one who has entered it. I never imagined you could bring it here in its entirety so that I and everyone present could see it. The question had escaped me, yet you initiated the answer for me!'"

The assembly of Iraqi, Kufan, and Basran jurists, along with the people of the province of Babylon, turned to him and asked: "Had you seen it [Iram] before this time, O brother of Himyar?"

He replied: "Yes, indeed. Once, a beast of mine went astray in the night, and I followed its tracks and pursued its sounds. I was in the lands of Najd, and as the wilderness stretched long before me, I despaired of both my life and my lost animal.