Shortly after, Terah’s wife was pregnant; she concealed her situation as long as was possible, pretending that she was ill; but when she could conceal it no more, the infant crept behind her breasts, so that she appeared to every eye as if nothing were about to take place. When the time came for her delivery, she went in fear out of the city, and wandered in the desert till she lighted on a cave, into which she entered. Next morning she was delivered of a son, Abraham, whose face shone, so that the grotto was as light as though the sun were casting a golden beam into it. She wrapped the child in a mantle, and left it there to the custody of God and His angels, and returned home. God heard the cry of the weeping infant, and He sent His angel Gabriel to the cave, who let the child suck milk out of his fore-finger. But according to another account he opened two holes in the cave, from which dropped oil and flour to nourish Abraham. Others, however, say that Terah visited the cave every day, and nursed and fed the child. According to the Arab tradition, which follows the Jewish in most particulars, the mother, on visiting the cave, found the infant sucking its two thumbs. Now out of one of its thumbs flowed milk, and out of the other, honey, and thus the babe nourished itself: or, say others, from one finger flowed water when he sucked it; from a second, milk; from a third, honey; from a fourth, the juice of dates; and from the little finger, butter.[297] When Abraham had been in the cave, according to some, three years, according to others ten, and according to others thirteen, he left the cavern and stood on the face of the desert. And when he saw the sun shining in all its glory, he was filled with wonder, and he thought, “Surely the sun is God the Creator!” and he knelt down and worshipped the sun. But when evening came, the sun went down in the west, and Abraham said, “No! the Author of creation cannot set.” Now the moon arose in the east, and the stars looked out of the firmament. Then said Abraham, “This moon must indeed be God, and all the stars are His host!” And kneeling down he adored the moon. But after some hours of darkness the moon set, and from the east appeared once more the bright face of the sun. Then said Abraham, “Verily these heavenly bodies are no gods, for they obey law: I will worship Him who imposed the law upon them.” The Arab story is this. When Abraham came out of the cave, he saw a number of flocks and herds, and he said to his mother, “Who is lord of these?” She answered, “Your father Azar (Terah).” “And who is the lord of Azar?” he further asked. She replied, “Nimrod.” “And who is the lord of Nimrod?” “Oh, hush, my son,” said she, striking him on the mouth; “you must not push your questions so far.” But it was by following this train of thought that Abraham arrived at the knowledge of the one true God.