http://archive.worldhistoria.com/till-birnam-wood-do-come-to--yamama_topic25997.html till Birnam wood do come to . . . Yamama?
I was reading Juvaini's History of the World Conqueror, and when I reached his chapter (Chapter XVI) on the Mongol march to Bokhara I had to do a double-take. Juvaini describes a detatchment of Mongols disguising themselves as merchants to take a town, and to add colour he compares it with the following folk story:
<Tayir Bahadur 7 was proceeding in advance of the main forces. When he and his men drew near to the town of Nur 8 they passed through some gardens. During the night they felled the trees and fashioned ladders out of them. Then holding the ladders in front of their horses they advanced very slowly ; and the watcher on the walls thought that they were a caravan of merchants, until in this manner they arrived at the gates of the citadel of Nur; when the day of that people was darkened and their eyes dimmed.>
"It is the story of Zarqa of Yamama. She had built a lofty castle, and her keenness of sight was such that if an enemy attempted to attack her she would descry his army at a distance of several stages and would prepare and make ready to repel him and drive him off. And so her enemies achieved nought but frustration and there remained no strategem which they had not tried. Finally one of them commanded that trees should be cut down with their branches and that each horseman should hold a tree in front of him. Thereupon Zarqa exclaimed: 'I see a strange sight: the likeness of a forest is moving towards us.' Her people said: 'The keenness of thy sight hath suffered some hurt, else how should trees move?' They neglected to watch or take precautions; and on the third day their foes arrived, and overcame them, and took Zarqa prisoner, and slew her."
This seems too close for coincidence to the attack on Dunsinane in the final act of Macbeth:
(Act 5, Scene 4)
Siward: What wood is this before us?
Menteith: The wood of Birnam.
Malcolm: Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.
So just how old is this story, and where does it come from? I do wonder how an old Arabic folk tale would have found its way to Elizabethan England, to be picked up by a London playwright.
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well here what i found
its an ancient pre-islamic story, Zarqa Al Yamama is a woman from an ancient arabic tribe called Jadees (Jadis) which is in the center of Arabian penensula close to Modern Ryadh the capital of Saudi arabia. she was known for her strong eye sight that she can see people from a three days walking distant !
Zarqa means Blue, some say her eyes were blue and thats why she was called zarqa and some say her name was Zarqa and did not explain why,
Al Yamama is the area where she lived, some sources say the area called after her, other say the area called yamama before her.

- Зарка была очень зоркой, случайно ли так похожи эти слова? Зарка по-арабски голубой/синий (т.е. типа "голубоглазая"), ямама - голубь. Судьба Зарки аль-Ямамы напоминает Кассандру, Зарка видела дальше других, видела угрожающую городу опасность, но её словам не поверили, т.к. она и сама была частично обманута врагом. И подобно Кассандре она была убита.
По ФиН, Бирнамский лес в Макбете - это Троянский конь. Но оказывается, по Джувейни, и войска Чингисхана применили аналогичную хитрость при взятии Нура, города или крепости недалеко от Бухары (случай этот описан в главе XVI о взятии Бухары. Кстати, считают, что осада Чингисханом Бухары 1220 г. послужила прообразом для осады Альбракки императором Тартарии Агриканом в рыцарской поэме Боярдо "Влюблённый Роланд").

...Zarqa' al-Yamamah (the Blue-eyed One of Yamamah). She, too, has a "glass-like," or "lens-like, glance" (mithla z-zujajati)26 and her ability to see, although she is cursed not to be believed, is only comparable to the Trojan Cassandra's ability to foresee - especially to foresee the doom impending upon Troy - but not be given credence.27 Like Cassandra in her seer's knowledge of Odysseus's ruse prepared for the credulous Trojans, Zarqa` al-Yamamah had warned in vain her husband's clan, the Jadis of Yamamah, of the approaching army of the Himyarites and of their ruse of carrying a screen of bushes before them - a forest advancing, quite like the "great Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane."28
(Muhammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth Авторы: Jaroslav Stetkevych - стр23)

..Al-Zamakhshari said "More perceptive than al-Zarqa'" (= "the blue-eyed girl") (absar mina z-zarqa') is one of the most wide-spread proverbs. She was one of the daughters of Luqman ibn Ad and was the queen of al-Yamamah. (Al-Yamamah was her name and the country, al-Yamamah, was named for her). . . . She was one of the three "blue-eyed women" and was of the tribe of Jadis. When Jadis killed Tasm, Hassan ibn Tubba raised an army of the tribe of Tasm against al-Yamamah. When the army was three nights' distance from Jaww, al-Zarqa' mounted the fortress known as al-Kalb and gazed at them, but they had camouflaged themselves with trees...
(The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy: Myth, Gender, and Ceremony in the ... Авторы: Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych - p38)

- Зарка якобы была дочерью Лукмана ибн Ада - не тот ли это известный мудрец Лукман Хаким, упоминаемый в Коране, сравниваемый с Эзопом?

When did zarqa alyamama live?
You mean Zarqa' Al-Yamamah (the blue-eyed dove). She is legendary and perhaps lived somewhere between 100 BC and 50 AD.
The Al-Yamamah region was named after Al-Yamamah, the beautiful, blue-eyed daughter of Sahem Ben Tassem, leader of the Tassem tribe.
Legend has it that when Tuba, the King of Yemen, invaded the region, he was warned to use caution region because Al-Yamamah had special vision which allowed her to see in the distance, far beyond the capability of ordinary men and women. The soldiers approached with great caution and covered themselves with tree branches to avoid detection, but they still could not escape detection by the keen-sighted girl whose vision was equally accurate by day or night. Al-Yamamah quickly warned the tribal leaders that the Yemeni army was close to their home. However, it was too late. Tuba and his army conquered the area and captured the blue-eyed Al-Yamamah. Tuba was so impressed with the girl's character and powers that he ordered his tribes to name the region after her. From that day on, the region has been called Al-Yamamah.

Про какого-то Туббу пишут, что он был одним из пяти царей, владевших всем миром:

http://www.al-islam.org/hayat-al-qulub-vol1-allamah-muhammad-baqir-al-majlisi/38.htm Accounts of Rulers and Kings
..Ibn Shahr Aashob has narrated that Tubba is one of those five kings who ruled over the entire world. He reached every part of the world and took ten wise and learned men from every city with him and came to Makkah. When the people did not respect him, he became angry. He consulted his vizier Ayaareesaa. He said, These are ignorant people. They are proud of this Ka‘bah. So the king decided in his heart to break this building and to kill the residents of Makkah. Allah made his head and brain so sick that dirty material began to flow from his eyes and ears and nose. Doctors could not cure it and they said this ailment is divine (a trouble arrived from above) and hence they could not help..

Про некоего Туббу также существует история о встрече его с тремя ведьмами - опять же мотив из Макбета. Этот тот Тубба, который сделал первое покрывало для Каабы:

http://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=63441 Witchcraft in "The Ballad of Three Witches" and Shakespeare's Macbeth by Mithal Madlool Chelab
.."The Ballad of Three Witches"(450A.D.), anonymous genuine piece of Arabic folk poetry that is related to pre-Islamic poetry..
..the national Arabian hero, the Himyarite king Tubba' As'ad Kamil who was the first to clothe Al-kea'ba..
.."The Ballad of Three Witches" documents the meeting of the Arabian hero, The Tubba' with the three witches. Tubba' As'ad Kami'l9 was born in Khamir at 370 A.D and brought up in Hano'm mountain in Hamadin land. He ruled Al-Yemen from the end of fourth century until the beginning of the fifth one. During As'ad's reign Al-Himyarite Empire became at the peak of supremacy to the extent that his age was called the golden age.10..
..Now after being familiar with the story of the meeting of the three witches with Tubba' As'ad Kamil, Abu Karib, the national Arabian hero who occupies the memory of generations, one can regard "The Ballad of Three Witches" as one of the possible sources that are thought to influence the creation of witchcraft in Shakespeare's Macbeth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu-Karib_Assad
Tub'a Abu Kariba As'ad (Abu Kariba) was the Himyarite king of Yemen. He ruled Yemen from 390–420 CE.<2> Abu Kariba is commonly cited as the first of several kings of Arabia to convert to Judaism.<1><3><4><5><6><7><8>
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Абу_Кариб_Асад
"..Его войска достигли Медины, которая тогда была известна как "Ясриб". Не встречая сопротивления, они прошли через город, оставив одного из сыновей царя на посту губернатора города. Через несколько дней, однако, люди Ясриба убили своего нового губернатора, сына царя. Получив известие, царь повернул войска отомстить за смерть своего сына, и разрушить город. Он приказал, чтобы все пальмы вокруг города были вырублены, потому что деревья были основным источником дохода жителей города ", а затем осадил город.<2>"

- кстати тоже история с деревьями. Снова "Бирнамский лес"?

"Первым человеком, набросившим на Каабу покрывало (кисват), был тубба. Тубба – это прозвище йеменских правителей. В V по Григорианскому календарю Йеменем правил Абу Карб Табан Асад, который был иудеем. Он прославился, завоевав обширные территории. Во время возвращения из покоренного Ирака, представители арабских племен встречаются с ним и просят, чтобы тот напал и разрушил Мекку. Потому что арабы завидовали жителям Мекки, которые прекрасно жили за счет Каабы. Тубба обещает сравнять Мекку с землей. Но волей Аллаха он внезапно становится жертвой страшной болезни, его глаза вылезают из орбит. Советники Туббы рекомендуют ему отказаться от намерения разрушить Каабу, если он хочет найти исцеление. Тубба решает не нападать на Мекку. И даже наказывает тех, кто надоумил его на это. А сам с большим почтением входит в Мекку и посещает Каабу. В знак уважения он приказывает приготовить из дорогого йеменского шелка покрывало и укрыть Каабу." http://islam.az/article/a-272.html