The chapter recounts the ancient fall of Iblees, whose true identity has been obscured by retellings. Iblees is not an angel but a Jinn, a being of fire from the race that once owned the earth. When Iblees falls from the heavens, the impact marks not only Iblees’s disgrace but the ruin of the Jinn civilization.

After Iblees’s fall, the universe rejects the Jinn to avoid association with the enemy of the All-Powerful. The sun withdraws first, plunging Earth into perpetual night and ice; the moon follows, disrupting the planet and its oceans. Flood, cold, darkness, and geological collapse destroy much of Jinn history and halve the population within days.

The surviving Jinn continue in darkness without celestial guidance, measuring time only through births and survival. Their fiery souls and need for only water allow some to endure, but their bodies change: many go blind, their skin pales, and their strength diminishes. Meanwhile, Clay slowly forms in the waters, preparing to become the next intelligent race on Earth.

When Clay finally stands as human beings, the sun returns, along with the moon and stars. The renewed heat harms the Jinn, whose eyes and bodies have grown unaccustomed to light and warmth. Those who survive follow starlight to the coldest reaches of the world, where they build a hidden, diminished kingdom and press themselves so far from ordinary perception that they nearly disappear.

The Jinn recognize that, despite being stronger, faster, and more powerful than humans, Clay now owns the earth and skies. Haunted by Iblees’s continued existence and ashamed of the catastrophe tied to him, the Jinn surrender the world to humanity and pray never to be found. That prayer, like others before it, goes unanswered.