The City of Brass: A Lost City of Jinn in Islamic Heritage

Among the strangest stories preserved in Arabic and Islamic heritage is the account of Madinat al-Nuhas, the City of Brass.

It is described as a sealed city somewhere in the western lands, linked to Prophet Sulayman, peace be upon him, the jinn, brass vessels and a terrifying reminder about the collapse of worldly power.

This is not a Qur’anic story. It is not an established hadith. It belongs to the literature of ʿaja’ib, the classical Arabic genre of wonders, travel accounts and strange reports.

That distinction matters.

The Qur’an confirms that Allah gave Prophet Sulayman extraordinary authority, including command over the jinn and a flowing source of molten copper. Surah Saba mentions that some of the jinn worked before him by Allah’s permission and made for him structures, basins and large vessels.

The City of Brass takes that Qur’anic backdrop and turns it into one of the most mysterious legends in Islamic heritage.

The Story

The most famous version appears in One Thousand and One Nights, where the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan hears reports about brass vessels sealed by Sulayman, peace be upon him. These vessels were said to contain rebellious jinn who had been imprisoned and thrown into the sea. The Caliph sends Musa ibn Nusayr, the governor of North Africa, to search for them.

Musa’s expedition crosses remote lands until it reaches a city unlike anything they had seen before.

The city is sealed.

Its walls are enormous.

Its gates cannot be found.

Its silence is unnatural.

When men attempt to climb the walls, they look inside, laugh strangely, then throw themselves into the city. Their companions hear terrifying sounds from within, but the men never return. Classical Arabic sources connect this scene to the presence of jinn guarding the city.

The image is direct: the city is not merely abandoned. It is forbidden.

A City Built by Jinn?

Some versions say the City of Brass was built by the jinn under the command of Prophet Sulayman. Other versions connect it to ancient kings, lost nations and hidden treasures.

Zakariya al-Qazwini’s Athar al-Bilad wa Akhbar al-Ibad preserves reports about the City of Brass and mentions accounts attributed to Ibn al-Faqih and Abu Hamid al-Andalusi. These reports describe a city with no visible gate, massive walls and a reputation for being guarded by jinn.

A recent academic study notes that classical Arabic sources treated the stories of Sulayman’s brass vessels and the City of Brass in different ways, with some versions placing the expedition under Musa ibn Nusayr and connecting the story to the search for treasures and sealed jinn vessels. The same study also classifies these narratives as literary fiction rather than verified history.

That does not make the story useless.

It means it should be read as heritage, warning and imagination, not as a confirmed historical report.

The Brass Vessels of Sulayman

One of the strongest elements in the story is the idea of jinn sealed inside brass vessels.

In the Nights version, Musa explains that Sulayman, peace be upon him, would imprison rebellious marids in brass containers, seal them with lead, stamp them with his signet, and cast them into the sea.

This part of the legend clearly draws from the Islamic belief that Sulayman had authority over the jinn. The Qur’an confirms the foundation: the jinn worked under him by Allah’s permission.

But the specific details of sealed brass vessels are not established from Qur’an or authentic hadith. They belong to the wider storytelling tradition around Sulayman’s power.

The Real Message: Death, Power and Ruins

The City of Brass is not only a story about jinn.

It is a story about the end of power.

In many versions, the travellers find inscriptions, warnings and scenes of death. The city becomes a monument to vanished kings, wealth that could not save its owners, and beauty trapped inside ruin.

This is why the story survived.

It gives the reader the thrill of mystery, but the core message is moral: kingdoms vanish, treasures remain behind, and human beings leave the world no matter how high their walls were.

The City of Brass is therefore not just a lost city.

It is a graveyard of arrogance.

Did It Really Exist?

There is no reliable evidence that a physical City of Brass, as described in the stories, has ever been found.

The reports place it vaguely in western lands, sometimes around North Africa, Andalusia, or remote regions beyond ordinary travel routes. That uncertainty is part of the legend.

Modern researchers generally treat it as a literary and symbolic tale from Arabic wonder literature rather than a verified historical city.

A careful position is simple:

The Qur’an confirms Sulayman’s authority over the jinn.

The City of Brass itself is not confirmed by Qur’an or authentic hadith.

The story exists in major Arabic heritage and literary sources.

Its value is in what it reveals about Muslim imagination, moral warning and the literature of wonders.

Why It Still Matters

The City of Brass sits at the intersection of several themes:

Sulayman and the jinn.

Ruined cities.

Hidden knowledge.

Forbidden places.

Worldly power collapsing into silence.

That is why the story continues to attract attention. It speaks to something deeper than curiosity. It reminds the reader that every civilisation, no matter how wealthy or fortified, can become a warning for those who come after it.

The city’s brass walls may belong to legend.

But the lesson is real.

Power ends.

Death remains.

And ruins speak to anyone willing to listen.

Conclusion

The City of Brass is one of the most haunting stories in Islamic heritage literature.

It is not a confirmed article of belief, and it should not be treated as Qur’an or hadith. But as a piece of Arabic wonder literature, it carries weight: a sealed city, jinn-linked mysteries, brass vessels of Sulayman, and a final warning about the illusion of worldly power.

Whether the city existed or not, its message is clear.

The strongest walls cannot protect a civilisation from its appointed end.