Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends
“Thou wert hasty in desiring the destruction of this people, therefore
God hath withdrawn from thy life twenty years, which He has taken from
thee in sleep. Now He sends thee precious relics wherewith to establish
thy mission, to wit, Adam’s shirt, Abel’s sandals, Seth’s overcoat,
Enoch’s seal ring, Noah’s sword, and Hud’s staff.”
Next day, as the king Djundu with his brother Schihab, and the priests
and the princes of the people, formed a procession to an idol temple
near the town, Saleh ran before the procession, entered the temple, and
stood in the door.
“Who art thou?” asked the king in astonishment: for he did not recognize
Saleh, so greatly had God changed him in his sleep of twenty years.
He answered: “I am Saleh, the messenger of the only God, who preached to
you twenty years ago, and showed to you many signs and wonders, but you
would not believe. And now once more I appear unto you to give you a
proof of my mission. Ask what miracle I shall perform and it shall be
done.”
Then the king said, “Bring me here out of the rock a camel one hundred
ells long, of every colour under the sun, whose eyes are like lightning,
and whose feet are swifter than the wind.”
Saleh consented. Then said Davud, “Let its fore feet be golden and its
hinder feet silver, its head of emerald and its ears of ruby. Let it
bear on its hump a tent of silver, woven with gold threads and adorned
with pearls, resting on four pillars of diamonds!”
When Saleh agreed to this also, the king added, “And let it bring with
it a foal like to its mother, just born, and running by her side; then
will I believe in Allah, and in thee as His prophet.”
“And wilt thou believe too?” asked Saleh of the high priest.
“Yes,” answered Davud, “if she give milk without being milked, cold in
summer and warm in winter.”
“And one thing more,” threw in the king’s brother, Schihab; “the milk
must heal the sick, enrich the poor, and the camel must of its own
accord go into every house, and fill the pails with milk.”
“Be it according to your will,” said Saleh. “But I warn you,—no one must
injure the camel, deprive it of its food or drink, attempt to ride it,
or use it for any other kind of labour.”
When they consented, Saleh prayed to God, and the earth opened under his
feet, and a well of fragrant water gushed up, and poured over the rock,
and the rock was rent, and the camel started forth in every particular
such as the king and his high priest had desired. So they cried, “There
is no God but God, and Saleh is His prophet.”
Then the angel Gabriel came down from heaven, having in his hand a
flaming sword, wherewith he touched the camel, and she bore instantly a
foal like her parent.
Then the king fell on Saleh’s neck, and kissed him and believed. But his
brother Schihab and Davud attributed all that had been done to magic,
and they laboured to convince the people that the camel was the work of
necromancy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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