Medieval polemicists invented a magnetic floating tomb for Muhammad

Evidence

And his people, believing that his spirit to the stars had passed, dared not submit his body to the earth. They established therefore an ark of admirable workmanship: In this they placed him as best they could. For, as is told, [the ark] seems to hang With Machomus’ members lying inside So that without any support it hangs in the air, And without any chains holding it from above. And if you ask them by what artifice it does not fall, They erroneously repute it to Machomus’ powers. But in fact it is covered in iron, Placed in the center of a square building Made out of magnetic rock, on all four sides The measurements are the same inside and out. By nature it attracts the iron to itself equally So that it is unable to fall in any direction. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 778

Categorization

• SEED: The magnetic floating tomb is a perfect concrete case study for how medieval Christian polemic fabricated ‘explanations’ of rival religions — a reusable example for writing on how enemies get mythologized.
• FICTION: The floating magnetic tomb is a striking image that could seed a fantasy or alt-history scene — a shrine that physically hangs in midair and everyone believes it’s a miracle except the engineers who built it.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 778