8 Preface الَّتي لَم يُخلَق مِثلُها فِي البِلادِYusuf AliThe like of which were not produced in (all) the land?1This tract of southern Arabia was once very prosperous (Arabia Felix) and contains ruins and inscriptions. It has always been an object of great interest to the Arabs. In the time of Mu‘āwīya some precious stones were found among the ruins in this locality. Quite recently, a bronze lion’s head and a bronze piece of gutter with a Sabæan inscription, found in Najrān, have been described in the British Museum Quarterly, vol. XI, No. 4, Sept. 1937.