In 653, an Arab force under Muslim general Muawiyah I raided Rhodes, and according to the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor,[7] the remains of the statue constituted part of the booty, being melted down and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa who loaded the bronze onto 900 camels.[8] The same story is recorded by Bar Hebraeus, writing in Syriac in the 13th century in Edessa[25] (after the Arab pillage of Rhodes): "And a great number of men hauled on strong ropes which were tied around the brass Colossus which was in the city and pulled it down. And they weighed from it three thousand loads of Corinthian brass, and they sold it to a certain Jew from Emesa" (the Syrian city of Homs).[26]
Ultimately, Theophanes is the sole source of this account, and all other sources can be traced to him.[27] As Theophanes' source was Syriac, it may have had vague information about a raid and attributed the statue's demise to it, not knowing much more. Or the Arab destruction and the purported sale to a Jew may have originated as a powerful metaphor for Nebuchadnezzar II's dream of the destruction of a great statue.