Saleh, a resident of Shabwa in the Yemen, dreamed so often that he was growing a horn on his head that he came to bel­ieve it would come to pass. It was only a quest­ion of when. Now aged 102, he recounts how a horn began to sprout on the left side of his head 25 years ago.

Since it did not bother him and there were no local medical facilities, he just ig­nored it. Event­ually, it grew into a horn 1ft 8in (50cm) long. His fell­ow vill­ag­ers were as­tound­ed and ass­umed it must be pain­ful, but Saleh said they came to real­ise it was simply “some­thing Allah wanted to happen to show the people that he can do as he de­sires”. As the horn grew, it became weaker and more diffi­cult for Saleh to man­age, espec­ially during sleep.

It finally fell off and a second one started grow­ing in its place. Hun­dreds of people from the Yemen and other Gulf states have come to see Saleh and touch his horn. “I have no idea why Allah chose me,” he said, “but I thank God for his mercy and show of great­ness. I only say al-hamdu lillah.”

Yemen Observ­er, 17 Feb 2007. For other cases of human horns, see FT177:50–54.