“
I was told by al-Hasan ibn-‘Ulayl, on the authority of ‘Ali ibn-al-Sabbih that abu-al-Mundhir Hisham ibn-Muhammad said that abu-Miskin had related to him on the authority of his father[9] the following: When Imru’-al-Qays ibn-Hujr set out to raid the banu-Asad he passed by dhul-al-Khalash (This was an idol which stood in Tabalah and which all the Arabs venerated.) It had three divination arrows: “the enjoiner” (al-amir), “the forbidder” (al-nahi), and “the vigilant” (al-mutarabbis). As Imru’-al-Qays stood before the idol, he shuffled the arrows three times and three times he drew “the forbidden”. Thereupon he broke the arrows and hurled them at the idol exclaiming, “Go bite thy father’s penis! Had it been thy father who was murdered, thou wouldst not have forbidden me avenging him.” He then raided the banu-Asad and defeated them. Consequently no more sortilege was practiced before dhu-al-Kahlasah until the advent of Islam [when it was destroyed]. Imru’-al-Qays was thus the first to denounce and renounce it. ”
—Kitab al-Asnam (Book of Idols), Hisham ibn-Al-Kalbi
