Ghumdan

Ghumdan is a palace in the city of Sanaa. Al-Mas'udi reports that al-Dahhak built it in the name of Venus, that it was ruined in the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan (may God be pleased with him) until it became a great mound, and that the vizier Ali ibn Isa ibn al-Jarrah built a water fountain there and dug a well when he was exiled to Yemen. Al-Mas'udi saw it as rubble and a mound, as if it had never been, in 332 AH. ²

Al-Mas'udi reports that As'ad ibn Ya'fur wanted to build it, and Yahya ibn al-Husayn al-Hasani advised him not to touch it, because it would be built at the hands of a boy who would come out of the land of Saba and Ma'rib. ²

In the accounts of the people of Yemen that al-Hamdani records, Ghumdan and al-Qalis were built by Bilqis. ³

Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari counts it among the most famous monuments and most conspicuous landmarks, and says that it was the dwelling of the Tubba' kings of Himyar. ⁴