A prominent Saudi Arabian cleric has caused controversy after issuing a religious ruling forbidding the building of snowmen. 

Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid described snowmen as anti-Islamic and said that building snowmen is not even permitted as a form of play.

The Saudi cleric quoted from Muslim scholars, arguing that to build a snowman was to create an image of a human being, an action considered sinful under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Sunni Islam. "God has given people space to make whatever they want which does not have a soul, including trees, ships, fruits, buildings and so on," he wrote in his ruling.

Snow has covered upland areas of Saudi Arabia, near the country's border with Jordan.