Time will tell, if Allah wills.

Yes, I think we may have a little surprise for our friends, the Meccans." The two fell silent again, watching the desert panorama roll back and away, beneath them.

Afar, two or three little oases showed feathery-tufted palms standing up like delicate carvings against the remote purple spaces or against the tawny, seamed desolation that burned as with raw colors of fires primeval.

Here, there, patches of stunted tamarisk bushes were visible.

A moving line of dust showed where a distant caravan was plodding eastward over the sparkling crystals of an ancient salt sea-bottom.