Then came the Word to the Archangel Jibrail the Faithful, saying: “Follow those two with diligence, and interpose the shield of thy benevolence where it shall be necessary; for though We have surrendered them for awhile (to Eblis) they shall not achieve an irremediable destruction.” Jibrail therefore followed our First Substitute and the Lady Eve--upon whom is the Grace and a Forgetfulness--and kept watch upon them in all the lands appointed for their passage through the world. Nor did he hear any lamentations in their mouths for their sins. It is recorded that, for a hundred years they were continuously upheld by the Peacock under the detestable power of Eblis the Stoned, who by means of magic multiplied the similitudes of meat and drink and rich raiment about them for their pleasure, and came daily to worship them as Gods. (This also lay in the predestined Will of the Inscrutable). Further, in that age, their eyes were darkened and their minds were made turbid, and the faculty of laughter was removed from them. The Excellent Archangel Jibrail, when he perceived by observation that they had ceased to laugh, returned and bowed himself among the Servitors and cried: “The last evil has fallen upon Thy creatures whom I guard! They have ceased to laugh and are made even with the ox and the camel.” It was answered: “This also was foreseen. Keep watch.” After yet another hundred years Eblis, whose doom is assured, came to worship Adam as was his custom and said: “O my Lord and my Advancer and my Preceptor in Good and Evil, whom hast thou ever beheld in all thy world, wiser and more excellent than thyself?” Adam said: “I have never seen such an one.” Eblis asked: “Hast thou ever conceived of such an one?” Adam answered: “Except in dreams I have never conceived of such an one.” Eblis then answered: “Disregard dreams. They proceed from superfluity of meat. Stretch out thy hand upon the world which thou hast made and take possession.” So Adam took possession of the mountains which he had levelled and of the rivers which he had diverted and of the upper and lower Fires which he had made to speak and to work for him, and he named them as possessions for himself and his children for ever. After this, Eblis asked: “O, my Upholder and Crown of my Belief, who has given thee these profitable things?” Adam said: “By my Hand and my Head, I alone have given myself these things.” Eblis said: “Praise we the Giver!” So, then, Adam praised himself in a loud voice, and built an Altar and a Mirror behind the Altar; and he ceased not to adore himself in the Mirror, and to extol himself daily before the Altar, by the name and under the attributes of the Almighty. The historians assert that on such occasions it was the custom of the Peacock to expand his tail and stand beside our First Substitute and to minister to him with flatteries and adorations.