Asif ibn Barkhiya

Asif appears in the Qur'anic account of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Surah 27). In that narrative Solomon's council asks who can bring the Queen's throne; an Ifrit of the jinn offers to bring it quickly, and then "he who possessed knowledge of the Book" (identified in tafsir as Asif, Sulayman's scribe) says he can bring it before Solomon's glance returns and effects the feat. Later exegetical tradition elaborates that Asif possessed knowledge of a letter/element of the "Greatest Name of Allah," and that by means of that knowledge (and after a brief act of purification and prayer) he contracted the distance so that the throne appeared before Solomon in a moment.

Classical scriptural and tafsir sources identify Asif by social role — the scribe or vizier of Solomon — but provide no physical description. The tradition frames him as an authoritative, knowledgeable court official (a believer and scribe) rather than as a distinct visually-marked supernatural form; no details of dress, age, or bodily features are given in the cited materials.

The core attested ability in the sources is the single Qur'anic miracle of bringing the Queen of Sheba's throne to Solomon "in the twinkling of an eye" (Qur'an 27:40). Exegetical accounts (e.g., Ibn Kathir) describe Asif as a truthful believer who "knew the Greatest Name of Allah," and they report that he performed ablution and prayed immediately before effecting the transport. Twelver Shia commentary cited in the notes states Asif knew one letter of a seventy-three-letter Greatest Name and used that letter to contract the land between him and the throne; the sources present this as a unique, God-granted efficacy tied to scriptural/esoteric knowledge rather than as a generic innate power enabling unlimited teleportation.