Ababil (religious)

Ababil (Arabic: أبابيل, romanized: abābīl) refers to the miraculous birds in Islamic belief mentioned in Surah Al-Fil of the Quran that protected the Kaaba in Mecca from the Aksumite elephant army of Abraha, then self-styled governor of Himyar, by dropping small clay stones on them as they approached. The event is said to have occurred in 570, the year that the Islamic prophet Muhammad was born.