Muhammad Ali's 1974 WBC heavyweight championship boxing belt and a handwritten letter about his conversion to Islam are among items that will hit the auction block in September, in the biggest such sale since Ali's death in June.

Thousands of people from the worlds of sports, entertainment, politics and Muhammad Ali's native Louisville on Friday said farewell to the boxing legend,

Those who knew Ali only through his hyperbolic self-promotion would have found his mix of play and purpose strange but that was Ali. Beneath the bluster was a serious soul who thought deeply about race, responsibility and justice and how they shaped him into who he was.

Muhammad Ali will be laid to rest Friday, the culmination of a two-day farewell for the beloved boxing legend and civil rights hero who electrified crowds the world over.

He wouldn't yield to pressures from sponsors, exerted twice before a heavyweight championship encounter to ostensibly distance himself from Islam. His association with Malcom X and hiring a Muslim woman cook for his camp miffed some potential sponsors threatening not to back Ali.

Muslim prayers over the body of Muhammad Ali will be witnessed worldwide Thursday, offering a window into a religion many outsiders know little about, but have come to scorn.

The sporting week that ended Sunday was one made poignant by the passing of the People's Champion, Muhammad Ali. That was swiftly followed by Novak Djokovic galloping away from the chasing pack by winning the French Open for the first time and in the process creating a host of records. For these and much more, read our weekly sports review.

Paul Simon was nearly finished with the 1969 Simon & Garfunkel classic "The Boxer" at a concert in Berkeley, California, on Friday night when he paused the song to give a fitting tribute to Muhammad Ali, breaking it to the crowd that the "the Greatest" had died.

Writers around the world fiddled with many words over half a century to define the aura that Muhammad Ali exuded. But eventually they all had to settle for The Greatest, the title with which Ali famously introduced himself after knocking out a fearsome Sonny Liston to become the world heavyweight champion some 52 years ago.