Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
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 color 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 labor.”
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 labored to convince the people that the camel was the
work of necromancy.
But as daily the camel gave her milk, and, whenever she drank, said her
grace with formality, the number of true believers increased daily,
and the high priest and all the chiefs of the infidels resolved on
her destruction. Schihab, the king’s brother, hoping to overturn the
king and take his place, by adhering to the established religion and
ignoring all novelties, was resolute in his resistance to the true
religion. Therefore he promised his daughter Rajan in marriage to
whosoever should kill the wondrous camel.
Now there was a young man of humble origin, named Kaddar, who had long
loved the maiden, but had never ventured to show his passion; he armed
himself with a great sword and attacked the camel as it was drinking,
in the rear, and wounded it in the hock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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