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such wrote to his friend in Rome who was also knowledgeable of the scriptures
then left for Homs, which is a town in Syria.

After a month or two Heraclius received a reply to his letter. His friend was in
agreement and confirmed his opinion that a prophet had indeed emerged in
Arabia.

Heraclius summoned all his senators and dignitaries to his palace and gave
orders that all the doors in the palace were to be locked as soon as they had
assembled. The assembly waited for Heraclius to enter and no sooner than he
entered he announced, "Byzantines, if you desire to be successful and if you
seek right guidance and want your empire to remain then pledge your allegiance
to this Prophet!"

Pandemonium broke out and everyone rushed to the doors and tried to leave.
Heraclius realized that they had no love for Islam, and lost hope of their
embracing Islam, so he ordered them to be brought back into the courtroom and
said, "What I said was just to test the strength of your loyalty, and I have seen it."
The assembly cried out, "Hail Caesar" and were pleased with him.