Chapter Four: In it, we saw from imagination, lands, and islands.

We passed by the island of Crete, seven days into our journey, and saw from afar its famous mountain, called by the Greeks "Aida". The month, in their Western histories. Then, on the thirteenth day of it, we saw the island of Sicily, with a kasra on the two s's and the lām, and with two hamzas. Some write it with two dots. It is famous in the Arabic tongue by the name Saqāliba or Siqilliyyah. This island is to the south of the land of Italy and separated from it by the strait called Būfāz Masīnah, with a fatha on the mīm, and a shadda on the kasra'd sīn, and sukūn on the yā' and fatha on the nūn. It is one of the greatest islands of the Mediterranean Sea and the most fertile. Therefore, it was called in the past "Shūnat Rūmah" (Granary of Rome). And in the past eras, it was a cause of war between the Romans and the people of Carthage, i.e., the inhabitants of the West. Then the matter ended with it falling under the rule of the Romans, then it moved from them to the kings of Greece, then the Muslims conquered it, then the Christians overcame it. The Rūmandiyyah, with a damma on the shaddad dāl, sukūn on the rā', fatha on the mīm, kasra on the dāl, and fatha on the shaddad yā', a faction from the French. Then some Spanish kings ruled it, then the Nimsah. Then the matter ended with it being part of the Kingdom of Naples, called Sicily, until it and Naples are now called by the Franks "the two Sicilies," referring to Sicily and Naples. In geography books, the people of this island are one hundred thousand souls, and its cities are beyond imagination. And we saw on this island, from afar, on the fourteenth day, the mountain called Etna, with a fatha on the mīm, sukūn on the nūn, kasra on the upper thā', and sukūn on the triangular thā'. And Etna is a compound word of two words, one of which is "Et" meaning "mountain" and the other is "na," so it is best to write them as "Etna," and it is famous.