Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2

Al-Saʿīd 1999: ʾlh for ʾhl{h}; h- grʿt for h-rmʿt; s¹ʿd-h ----ty----nhs² lh n{b} for s¹ʿ{d} -h ---- lh ----; ----nth for ----th

Sima 2000: b{l}k rather than b-hk----; h-rmʿt, 'a place name or a temple name referring to the divinity'

Robin 2020, 54: ʾlh for ʾhlh

OCIANA 1: ʾfkl / h- l---- for ʾfkl / hl{h}

This inscription records a priest, ʾafkal (cf. Akkadian Apkallu), of the deity hlh, which is likely the etymological equivalent to Allāh but with the Dadanitic definite article h rather than ʾ (Robin 2020, 54). The dedicant commemorates the building of a structure for another deity ʾhl{h}, god of a place/people called h-rmʿt. Al-Saʿīd (1999, 15), followed by Robin (2020, 54) reads the divine name as ʾlh /ʾallāh/, but this requires the deletion of the second letter and the emedation of the third to an h. The reading is clearly ʾhl{h}, which could be a misspelling for ʾlh. It, however, remains significant that the god is named hallāh, with an h, in the first line. It is not uncommon for priests of one god to offer a dedication to another in certain contexts. Thus, it is equally possible, and perhaps more likely as it does not involved any emendations, that ʾhl{h} is another deity, derived from the root ʾhl 'tent' or 'family group'. For more on the profile of the pre-Islamic Allāh in the inscriptions of North Arabia, see Al-Jallad 2025c.