Some seven centuries after the death of Firnas, the
Moroccan historian
Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari (d. 1632) wrote a description of Firnas that included the following:
[6]
Among other very curious experiments which he made, one is his trying to fly. He covered himself with feathers for the purpose, attached a couple of wings to his body, and, getting on an eminence, flung himself down into the air, when according to the testimony of several trustworthy writers who witnessed the performance, he flew a considerable distance, as if he had been a bird, but, in
alighting again on the place whence he had started, his back was very much hurt, for not knowing that birds when they alight come down upon their tails, he forgot to provide himself with one.
[5]
Al-Maqqari is said to have used in his history works "many early sources no longer extant", but in the case of Firnas, he does not cite his sources for the details of the reputed flight, though he does claim that one verse in a 9th-century Arab poem is actually an allusion to Firnas's flight. The poem was written by Mu'min ibn Said, a court poet of
Córdoba under
Muhammad I (d. 886), who was acquainted with and usually critical of Ibn Firnas.
[5] The pertinent verse runs: "He flew faster than the
phoenix in his flight when he dressed his body in the feathers of a
vulture."
[6] No other surviving sources refer to the event.
[7]
It has been suggested that Ibn Firnas's attempt at
glider flight might have inspired the attempt by
Eilmer of Malmesbury between 1000 and 1010 in
England,
[8] but there is no evidence supporting this hypothesis.
[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_ibn_Firnas
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