George Cedrenus wrote about both the Holy Desert Quake and the Talking Mule Quake.

The Holy Desert Earthquake is said to have struck at 10 a.m. on January 18, though this time and date likely refer to the later Talking Mule Quake. Cedrenus records the Holy Desert Quake in two separate passages. In the first, he describes a great earthquake in Palestine, by the Jordan and in all of Syria, during which an innumerable multitude perished – thousands – and churches and monasteries collapsed. He adds, The worst was in the wilderness of the Holy City (Jerusalem). In another passage, Cedrenus writes that there were many earthquakes in various places and in the mountains in the wilderness of Saba, a village was swallowed.

Regarding the Talking Mule Quake, Cedrenus reports that there was a serious earthquake and terrible destruction in Syria, where some cities were destroyed and others partly destroyed. He adds that in the mountains, a village slid down the mountain for six miles with its houses and buildings intact. This account appears to embellish a real translational landslide, technically known as a block slide.

Finally, Cedrenus relates that in Mesopotamia the earth split for two thousand steps (about two thousand feet), and out of the chasm came a white soil, from which emerged a mule that spoke in a human voice, prophesying that a nation from the desert would invade the Arab lands – and the prophecy came true. Despite the fantastical appearance of an oracular mule – which became a popular part of this story – his mention of earth fissures and white sand eruptions is seismically credible.