Mount Abu Qubays

Mount Abi Qubays is a mountain in Mecca overlooking the Sacred Precinct. "The Sealed Nectar" mentions it in the account of the cause of the Alliance of the Virtuous: a man from Zubayd climbed it after his right had been withheld from him, and he called out in verses describing his wrong, raising his voice, until al-Zubayr ibn Abd al-Muttalib was stirred on his behalf. ^{1 2}.

The book does not describe the mountain, its place in the Sacred Mosque, or what is told about the reason for its name; those belong in geographical books.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed by W. Montgomery Watt, describes Abu Kubays as a sacred hill at the eastern edge of Mecca, rising abruptly from the valley floor above the Great Mosque. The Ka'ba corner with the Black Stone points towards it, and it lies at the foot of al-Safa, the southern end of al-Mas'a. Tradition holds that it was the first mountain God created, and that Adam and other ancients may be buried there. Its older name was al-Amin, because the Black Stone was kept safe there during Noah's Flood. ³

Al-Azraqi inclines to the version that identifies Abu Kubays as a man of Iyad, the first to build on the hill. Abu Kubays and Jabal al-Ahmar were called together al-Akhshabani, and a hadith says Mecca will last as long as they do. Popular tradition places the Prophet ﷺ on Abu Kubays when the moon was split. The Ka'ba was damaged in 64/683-4 by fire from a catapult fixed on the hill. A Sanusi zawiya was built there around 1252/1837, and a large Naqshbandi establishment stood on its slopes in Snouck Hurgronje's time. The article notes that no fortifications now remain. ³