What we know of Rabia al Adawiyya (714? — 801 CE) comes to us from tradition, as she herself left no written works. The following anecdote comes from a book by Fariduddin Attar, published four centuries after Rabia’s death.

It is said that Rabia was going toward Mecca on pilgrimage. In the middle of the desert, she saw that the house of God, the Kaaba, had come to welcome her.

Rabia said, ‘I need the Lord of the House. What am I to do with the Kaaba?’