al-Fals
Arabian · deity · pantheon era · deity
THE IDOL WAS THE MOUNTAIN. Not a statue placed at a shrine but an outcrop of red granite that happened to take the shape of a man, on a black mountain — the geology is the cult.
Domains
- mountain
- tribal patronage of tayy
- the red granite outcrop
Sources
- Reference treatment of al-Fals: a central Arabian mountain god worshipped by the tribe of Tayy at a shrine on the black mountain of Jabal Aja, near the town of Ha'il in the Najd highlands; the idol of al-Fals was a distinctive outcrop of red granite which took the shape of a man.
- Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam (early 9th c. CE)