Illustration 1. Mount Abū Qubays (Jabal Qubays). Photograph by C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1884-5. Leiden University Library, Special Collections, Cod. Or. 26.367 No. 6. Reproduced with permission. Abū Qubays is the sacred mountain (jabal) , 460 metres high, overlooking the Great Mosque at Mecca, situated a few hundred metres to the east of the Mosque (Illustration 1). Its foothill is al-Ṣafā. The Mosque itself (including the Kaʿba) lies in the valley between Abū Qubays and the mountain Quʿayqiʿān, to the northwest of the Mosque. Abū Qubays is one of