which he is sent on an expedition
to the city of Brass on the shores of the Western Ocean.--See
Lane's translation, chap. 21.

[9] Conde, and the writers who have followed him, constantly
speak of the Beni-Modhar as Egyptian--an error owing to the
neglect or omission of the point which in Arabic orthography
distinguishes _Modhar_ from _Missr_, (Egypt.)

The spoil of the vanquished kingdom was immense--the accumulation of
long years of luxury and freedom from foreign invasion in a country
which, both from the fertility of the soil and the abundance of the
precious metals, was then probably the richest in Europe. Whatever
degree of credit we may attach to the famous table of Solomon, "said
by some to be of pure gold, and by others green emerald," and the gems
and ornaments of which are described with full Oriental luxuriance,
every account referring to the booty acquired in the principal cities,
gives ample evidence of the riches and splendour of the Visigoths.
"The plunder found at Toledo[10] was beyond calculation. It was common
for the lowest men in the army to find magnificent gold chains, and
long strings of pearls and rubies. Among other precious objects were
found 170 diadems of the purest red gold, set with every sort of
precious stone; several measures full of emeralds, rubies, and other
gems; and an immense number of gold and silver vases. Such was the
eagerness for plunder, and the ignorance of some, especially the
Berbers, that when two or more of this nation fell upon an article
which they could not conveniently divide, they would cut it in pieces,
whatever the material might be, and share it among them." Some of the
victorious army seized some ships in the eastern ports, and set sail
for their homes with their plunder; but they were speedily overtaken
by a tremendous storm, and all perished in the waves--a manifest
token, we are given to understand, of the Divine vengeance for the
abandonment of the _holy_ warfare under the banners of Islam.

[10] Burkhardt (Travels in Arabia, i. 303) says, that all the
golden ornaments which the Khalif Walid gave to the mosque at
Mekka, "were sent from Toledo in Spain, and carried upon mules
through Africa and Arabia."

Musa was on his march into Galicia to crush the last embers of
national resistance, when his progress was checked by a peremptory
summons from the Khalif, to answer at Damascus the charges forwarded
against him by