Nimrod called his council together, and it was unanimously decided that Abraham should be burnt alive. The king therefore published a decree ordering every man to bring wood or other fuel for the heating of the kiln.[299] The wood was piled about the furnace to the height of five ells, for a circle of five ells diameter, and for three days and three nights the fire was kept up, and the flames licked the heavens, so that the oven was at a white heat. Then Nimrod ordered his jailer to produce Abraham. The prison-keeper humbly answered, that it was impossible that Abraham could be alive, for he had been given neither meat nor drink. But Nimrod answered, “Produce him alive or dead.” Then the jailer went to the prison door and cried, “Abraham, livest thou?” “I live,” answered the prisoner, “and am hearty.” “How is that possible?” asked the jailer, astonished. “Because the Almighty has wrought a miracle on my behalf. He is sole God, invisible, the Creator of the world, and the Lord of Nimrod.” The jailer believed. The news was conveyed to Nimrod, who ordered the immediate execution of the jailer; but as the executioner was about to smite off his head, he cried, “The Eternal One is alone the true God of the world, and the God of Nimrod who denies him.” And lo! the sword was blunted, and shivered into a thousand fragments. Here we must add a few particulars from Mussulman sources. “Who is your God?” asked Nimrod of Abraham, when brought before him. “He who kills and makes alive again,” said Abraham. “I can do that,” exclaimed Nimrod, and he ordered two prisoners before him; one he slew, the other he spared. But Abraham said, “Behold the power of my God!” and he bade a dead man who had been four years in his grave, rise and bring him a white cock, a black raven, a green pigeon, and a gayly-colored peacock. The dead man rose and obeyed. Then Abraham cut up the birds, but preserved their heads; and lo! from the heads new bodies sprouted. “Now,” said Abraham, “do the same.” But Nimrod could not. “If thou art a God,” said Abraham again, “command the sun to rise to-morrow in the west and set in the east.” But this he could not do.[300] Nimrod was highly incensed, and ordered that Abraham should be at once precipitated into the fire. When he was brought before the king, say the Rabbis, the soothsayers recognized him as the boy at whose birth they had warned the king that one was come into the world who would be the father of a great nation which would subdue that of Nimrod, and would possess the whole earth and heaven. “This is the man against whom we cautioned you,” they said; “his father Terah must have deceived you, O king, and not have given you up the right child.” Terah, on being questioned, owned the truth. “Who gave you this advice?” asked the king; “confess it, and your life shall be spared.” Out of fear Terah told a lie, and said that Haran, his other son, had suggested the deception.