Informed Comment

SIDRATU ‘L-MUNTAHA. سدرة المنتحى
Lit. “The Lote-tree of the extremity.” A tree in the seventh heaven, having its roots in the sixth. Its fruits were like water-pots, and its leaves like elephant’s ears. (Mishkat, book xxiv. ch. vii. pt. 1.)
It is mentioned twice in the Qur’an, Surah liii. 8—18:— “Then came he (Gabriel or the angel) nearer and approached,
And was at the distance of two bows, or even cioser,— And he re,ealed to his servant what he revealed.
His heart falsified not what he saw. What! will ye then dispute with him as to what he saw?
He had seen him alsp another time,
Near the Sidrah-tree, which marks the boundary.
Near which is the garden of repose.
When the Sidrah-tree was covered with what covered it,
His eye turned not aside, nor did it wander:
For he saw ‘the greatest of the signs of his Lord.”
The Sidrah-tree is the Zizyphus jujube of Linnaeus, the prickly plum, which is called Ber in India. A decoction of its leaves is used in India to wash the dead, on account of the sacredness of the tree.

Based on Hughes, Dictionary of Islam