فَيَا لَكَ مِنْ لَيْلٍ كَأَنَّ نُجُومَهُ
بِأَمْرَاسِ كَتَّانٍ إِلَى صُمِّ جَنْدَلِ
“What a night! Its stars seem fastened by flaxen ropes to massive, unyielding stones.”
Nujūmahu names the stars of that night; amrāsi kattān are ropes made of flax, and ṣummi jandal are hard, unyielding rocks. Together they make the apparent immobility of the stars vividly concrete.
The verse is not a scientific assertion about celestial motion. It describes a night that feels unbearably slow. Because the stars seem fixed in place, the desired arrival of morning appears impossibly distant.