Home The distinction is very vague in Arabic between the words dar and bayt, both meaning “house” or “home.” But after consulting a knowledgeable colleague (a Moroccan ambassador and man of letters), the author assumes that dar is more likely to mean a house as a structure or an apartment block and bayt a room, an apartment, or simply home. However, in the ancient Arab texts the writer often jumps from one meaning to another, and I have taken real pain trying to disentangle them, as usual. Home symbolizes the man’s wife sheltered under his roof and to whom he goes, whence the expression “He went home.” Therefore, home and wife are synonyms. The door is her vagina or her face, the closet or the safe a maiden, like the dreamer’s daughter, whom he does not penetrate, as they are covered or hidden places in which he does not sleep. The servants quarters symbolize the servant (s). The place where cereals are stored is the mother, who used to keep the dreamer alive and let him grow by feeding him milk. The toilet represents those servants who are in charge of cleaning and washing or the dreamer’s wife, whom he embraces and penetrates when isolated, i.e., away from his children and the rest of the household. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Planet • Observing a huge twinkling planet: Welfare, influence, and knowledge. • Holding a planet in one’s hand: The dreamer will be blessed with an honest son. • Holding small planets: Fame and influence. • Stealing a planet: The dreamer will steal something valuable. • A gigantic planet falling: Death of a chief. • Planets disappearing from the sky: (1) If the dreamer is rich, money will go. (2) If he is poor, he will die. • Seeing a planet on one’s head: The dreamers will become famous and have an edge over others by serving a noble person. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Star Stars symbolize people. Those that have a masculine name represent men; those with a feminine name allude to women. Big ones refer to notables, small ones to youths, children, or slaves. The ones the Arabs used as guiding marks when they moved in the desert are the Prophet Muhammad’s companions. Stars that had once upon a time been worshipped instead of God and were thus metamorphosed, says Ibn Siren, like the Dog Star or Sirius, Venus, and Canopus, symbolize irreligious and evil persons. For a king, the stars are his soldiers and followers; for a bride or a bridegroom the stars are her or his entourage. • Stars falling on earth or in the sea or burning out: Bloodshed and killings. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Pregnancy • A boy under the age of puberty being pregnant: A reference to his father. • A pregnant woman: (1) Her wealth will increase, commensurate with the size of her belly. (2) She will persevere till she makes the money she wants, which will grow constantly. She will be proud of her achievements and highly dignified and praised. (3) Trouble, unhappiness, worries, and concealed matters. • A girl under the age of puberty being pregnant: A reference to her mother. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Yashmak (Turk. Double veil worn by Muslim women; Apparel; Attire; arb. Khimar; Niqab) A yashmak or a veil covering the lower part of the face up to the eyes in a dream represents a young girl who will live a long life, or it could represent one who devotes her life to religious and spiritual studies. (Also see Khimar; Veil) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Salt Salt has controversial interpretations. Ibn Siren did not like dreams involving salt. Some say white salt represents asceticism coupled with welfare and blessings. Cooking salt means worries, trouble, and disease or money earned the hard way and bringing about many problems. • Finding salt: Hardships and a severe ailment. • Eating bread and salt: Contentment. • A saltbox: A pretty girl. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Stair Stairs symbolize the rise in life and elevation in the Hereafter. They also allude to the notion of step by step, the travellers stopovers or transit points, the years of life, or days of work toward a certain goal. The staircase also refers to the majordomo or the housekeeper, the dreamer’s horse or whatever animal he rides, et cetera. For a ruler or a governor of some kind steps made of mortar mean promotion, welfare, and religion. For a merchant they mean business with piety and ethics. Steps made of bricks are resented, because bricks enter the fire. If made of stone, they mean promotion and welfare but arrived at with a stone heart. Made of wood, they mean welfare and promotion with hypocrisy and dissimulation. Steps made of gold mean that the dreamer will govern and enjoy abundance. If the steps are made of silver, the dreamer will have as many slave girls or servants. Brass or bronze steps mean that he will have the best of this world. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Bird • An unknown bird standing on one’s head, shoulder, or neck or knees: A reference to the action or deeds of the dreamer. If the bird was white, such action is candid. The reverse is also true. • An unknown bird standing on a pregnant woman’s head, shoulders, or knees: She will give birth to a child of the same gender as the bird. If the latter had stayed, the child would live and remain close to her. If it had flown away, it would mean the contrary. • Owning or catching a flock of birds: Money and power, especially if the dreamer was looking after them, feeding them, and talking to them. • Birds hovering over the dreamer’s head: Will become a leader. • Birds flying in one’s house: Angels will visit the house. (Also see Bat, Bustard, Carrion, Cock, Crow, Dove, Duck, Eagle, Falcon, Francolin, Goose, Griffin, Hawk, Hen, Kite, Ostrich, Owl, Parrot, Partridge, Pigeon, Quail, Raven, Roller, Sand Grouse, Sandpiper, Sparrow, Starling, Stork, Swallow, Vulture, and Warbler.) Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Duck The duck symbolizes a woman or a slave or servant girl. It also refers to a dangerous but God-fearing man, a virtuous one, or a hermit. • Eating duck meat: Will receive money from slave women or domestic helpers or from a maiden or will conquer the heart of a rich woman who will prove to be a blessing. • A duck talking to the dreamer: Will be dignified and honoured by a woman. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Moon The moon symbolizes the emperor, the supreme commander, or a person as influential as the former. The stars around it are his soldiers, the Pleiades are his houses or his wives and slave girls. It could also refer to the knowledgeable man, the scholar or all sorts of guides, evidence, references, and indications, for it lights people’s way in the darkness, especially during the last three nights in the Arabic month, which are the darkest. It alludes as well to children, the husband or wife, the master, and the beautiful female, owing to its beauty, particularly when it is full. Likewise, the moon alludes to whatever increases and decreases, because this, in fact, is what happens to it regularly when it starts as a crescent, turns into a full moon, then becomes again like a bracket. The new moon, or crescent, also represents a king, a prince, a commander, a leader, the newborn as it starts appearing from the vagina or as it utters its first cries, the hot bread just coming from the oven, a person reappearing after a long absence, the muath-then, or the one who cries for prayers, as he appears in his minaret, the orator at the podium, et cetera. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Pearl • Throwing a pearl under one’s feet: The dreamer will marry his daughter to someone of a different kind, perhaps an alien. • A pearl breaking: The dreamer will break with or lose his son. • Pearls scattered in a garbage dump: The dreamer is scoffing at good learning. • Using pearls as fuel: The dreamer is misleading someone or inciting him to do something wrong by using all his rhetoric. • A man whose wife is pregnant holding a pearl: She will have a girl. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Pearl Throwing pearls to a swine or over a trash pile in a dream means giving knowledge to people who are not worthy of it, or people who do not understand it and who will consequently mock him. Burning pearls to cook with them rather than wood in a dream means putting a heavy burden on someone who cannot carry it and consequently having him explode. Large pearls in a dream provide for better connotations than the small ones. Pierced pearls in a dream mean easy and fast coming money. Pearls in a dream also may represent tears. (Also see Counting pearls; Mother of pearl; Tears) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Atheism • Seeing many atheists: Will have many children. • An atheist slave girl: Indecent joy and pleasure. • Atheists entering the dreamer’s house to fight him: Enemies are after his blood and will succeed inasmuch as they penetrated his home. • Falling captive in atheist hands: Enormous worries. • Being held hostage or mortgaging oneself to atheists: Your sins are like a sword hanging over your neck. • Being an atheist, then embracing Islam: (1) You will thank God for his bounty after being ungrateful. (2) Death is near. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Gold • For women, bracelets and anklets refer to the husband. Jewels symbolize their children. Gold is the male child and silver the girls. Unmanufactured gold is worse than gold made into jewels, because in the latter case its ugly name, thahab (gone), is changed into bangle or something else. • Wearing a pendant or necklace: Will be entrusted with some high function or given a country or city to rule. • A man wearing a pendent partly made of gold: Will perform the pilgrimage to Mecca (Mecca (Makkah)). If the pendent is completely made of gold, he will become a ruler or a chief. In general, the pendent symbolizes man’s power and value. The longer and the heavier the better. • A man wearing a golden earring: He is a good singer. • Receiving a golden ring, a typical ring: Weakening religious faith, unless something is carved on it. • Receiving a golden ring that does not look like a ring and with nothing carved on it: Will lose some belonging or will arouse the chief’s wrath and anger. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Hunt Hunting in a dream represents one's diligence and determination to succeed in his life, and to earn his livelihood with his own sweat. If one happens to be unmarried, then hunting in a dream means that he will get married. If one is married, it means that he will beget a son. If a woman sees herself hunting in a dream, it means that she has control over her husband's money, her father's assets, or it could mean that she will receive an inheritance or control vast interests in a business. Hunting small preys in a dream represents knowledge, a trade, or an inheritance. (Also see Dog; Hunter) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Fortress Seeing a distant fortress in a dream means travelling from one place to another and gaining fame. Taking refuge in a fortress in a dream means victory. A fortress in a dream also means repenting from one's sins, or it could represent a great person. To conquer and capture a fortress in a dream means deflowering a virgin girl. (Also see Castle; Citadel) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Scepter Whatever may affect a scepter in a dream can be interpreted as affecting one's son or his tongue. If one sees himself hitting a small ball with a scepter, or playing with a ball in his dream, it represents a dispute with his wife, or a fight with a hypocritical person. A scepter in a dream also indicates the presence of jinn spirits, wars, devastations, or it could represent past benefits. Hitting someone with a scepter in dream means getting what one desires from him, but through crooked ways. If one sees his governor or his boss carrying a scepter in dream, it means that he will be appointed to head an important project. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Ants Ants leaving their colony in a dream means dying away of the population in that area, or that such a town may become a ghost town. Seeing ants leaving their nest in a dream also means adversities or distress. Though in this case, they represent the small and hard working people. If a sick person sees ants walking over his body in a dream, it means his death. Flying ants in a dream also mean hardships during a journey. Seeing winged ants in a dream means a war and destruction of a large army. Ants in a dream also may signify prosperity. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Bridge A bridge connecting two streets in a dream may lead to the ruler or to someone in his cabinet, particularly if it is built from stones and covered with baked bricks. If it is a small bridge, then it can represent the secretary, door attendant of a governor, a superior, or it can be interpreted as a pimp. If a bridge which is built from stone is transformed in one's dream to look as if it were made of dirt, it means changing of one's status and vice-versa. If one sees himself transformed into a bridge in a dream, it means that he will be elected for a leadership post, and people will need him, his prestige and what he can offer. (Also see Arched bridge; Bridge of the Day of Judgement; Contract; Knot; Transformation) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Pomegranate • Picking a pomegranate with red seeds: The dreamer will obtain one thousand gold coins (big money). • Picking a pomegranate with white seeds: The dreamer will obtain one thousand silver coins (small money). • Selling a pomegranate: The dreamer has given up the Hereafter in favour of worldly temptations and transient delights. • Eating pomegranate peel: The dreamer will recover from a disease. • Pressing pomegranates and drinking their juice: An allusion to what the dreamer spends on himself. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
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