from the science of the zodiac and images in isolation even though abu muhammad abdullah bin muslim bin qutaybah aljabali exaggerated and lengthened in all his books especially in his book on the superiority of the arabs over the persians. he claimed that the arabs were the most knowledgeable nation about the planets their risings and their fallings. i do not know whether i am more ignorant or ignorant of what the farmers and the people in every place and spot have in terms of the science of the beginning of actions and other things and the knowledge of times based on such things. for he who has the sky as his ceiling and nothing else as his roof and the rising and setting of the planets has always been in accordance with one system has attached the principles of his causes and the knowledge of times to it. rather the arabs had something that others did not have which is the immortalization of what they knew or guessed whether it was true or false praiseworthy or blameworthy in poetry verse and rhyme.
من علم البروج والصور بمعزل وإن كان أبو محمد عبد الله بن مسلم بن قتيبة الجبلى يهول ويطول فى جميع كتبه، وخاصة فى كتابه فى تفضيل العرب على العجم. وزعم أن العرب أعلم الامم بالكواكب ومطالعها ومساقطها. ولا أدرى أجهل أم تجاهل ما عليه الزراعون والأكرة فى كل موضع وبقعة من علم ابتداء الأعمال وغيرها ومعرفة الأوقات على مثل ذلك. فان من كان السماء سقفه، ولم يكنه غيرها، ودام عليه طلوع الكواكب وغروبها على نظام واحد، علق مبادئ أسبابه ومعرفة الأوقات بها. بل كان للعرب ما لم يكن لغيرهم، وهو تخليد ما عرفوه أو حدسوه، حقا كان أو باطلا، حمدا كان أو ذما، بالأشعار والارجوزة والأسجاع.