al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 406 AH) · Thaqalayn library edition, reproduced verbatim
أُحِيلُكَ مِنْ ذلِكَ عَلَى مُعَايَنَة، لاَ كَمَنْ يُحِيلُ عَلى ضَعِيف إسْنَادُهُ، وَلَوْ كَانَ كَزَعْمِ مَنْ يَزْعُمُ أَنَّهُ يُلْقِحُ بِدَمْعَة تَسْفَحُهَا مَدَامِعُهُ، فَتَقِفُ في ضَفَّتَي جُفُونِهِ، وأَنَّ أُنْثَاهُ تَطْعَمُ ذلِكَ، ثُمَّ تَبِيضُ لاَ مِنْ لِقَاحِ فَحْل سِوَى الدَّمْعِ الْمُنبَجِسِ، لَمَا كَانَ ذلِكَ بَأَعْجَبَ مِنْ مُطَاعَمَةِ الْغُرَابِ!. تَخَالُ قَصَبَهُ مَدَارِىَ مِنْ فِضَّة، وَمَا أُنْبِتَ عَلَيْهَا مِنْ عَجِيبِ دَارَاتِهِ وَشُمُوسِهِ خَالِصَ الْعِقْيَانِ، وَفِلَذَ الزَّبَرْجَدِ.
I am telling you all this from observation, unlike he who narrates on the basis of weak authority, as for example, the belief of some people that it fecundates the female by a tear which flows from its eyes and when it stops on the edges of the eyelids the female swallows it and lays its eggs thereby and not through fecundation by a male other than by means of this flowing tear. Even if they say this,it would be no amazing than (what they say about) the mutual feeding of the crows (for fecundation). You would imagine its feathers to be sticks made of silvers and the wonderful circles and sun-shaped feathers growing thereon to be of pure gold and pieces of green emerald.
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