There is a supposed paranormal event from the Middle East. It turns up in Chapter 30 of The Desert Column, an account by the Australian writer Ion L Idriess of his war service with the Australian Light Horse. Idriess enlisted early in the war, and landed at Gallipoli in May 1915, a few weeks after the first landings. He was wounded and evacuated, and he returned to his unit to serve in the Palestine campaigns of 1915, 1916 and 1917. At the end of 1917 he was wounded again, and this time he was evacuated home to Australia. Idriess's unit, the 5th Light Horse Regiment, was in reserve during General Sir Archibald Murray's offensive against the Turkish advanced posts at Maghdaba and El Arish in December 1916.

In The Desert Column, in his entry for 25 December, Idriess gives a short account of what he had heard about the battle he had just missed. "....Turkish losses were immeasurably heavier than ours although our fellows were attacking from the open desert and the Turks were snug in deep trenches supported by machine-guns. All the garrison were captured with their Krupps. Our wounded were collected in the dark, little fires were lit beside them so that they could be picked up by the stretcher-bearers groping across the desert. Then came a dreadful march back, for columns of Turkish reinforcements from Shellal were hurrying on Maghdaba. The wounded had a fearful time in the dreaded cacolets.

Later - A very peculiar story is being discussed throughout the Desert Column. It appears that the troops when riding back the thirty miles from Maghdaba were enveloped in blinding clouds of dust. Nearly the whole column was riding in snatches of sleep; no one had slept for four nights and they had ridden ninety miles. Hundreds of men saw the queerest visions - weird looking soldiers were riding beside them, many were mounted on strange animals. Hordes walked right amongst the horses making not the slightest sound. The column rode through towns with lights gleaming from the shuttered windows of quaint buildings. The country was all waving green fields, and trees and flower gardens. Numbers of the men are speaking of what they saw in a most interesting, queer way. There were tall stone temples with marble pillars and swinging oil lamps - our fellows could smell the incense - and white mosques with stately minarets...