“Because I feared they would look with wonder and reverence on thee, and thereby for a moment forget their Creator.” “I am greater than thou,” added the queen of the ants. “How so?” asked Solomon in surprise. “Because thou hast a metal throne, but my throne is thy hand, on which I now repose,” said the ant. “Before I leave thee, hast thou no word to say to me?” “I ask nothing of thee, but I give thee a piece of advice. As long as thou livest, give not occasion to be ashamed of thy name, which signifies _The blameless_. Beware also never to give the ring from thy finger, without saying first, ‘In the name of the God of all mercy.’” Solomon exclaimed, “Lord! Thy kingdom exceeds and excels mine!” and he bade farewell to the queen of the ants.[667] After Solomon had visited Damascus, he returned another way, so as not to disturb the ants in their pious contemplation. Ashe returned, he heard a cry on the wind, “O God of Abraham, release me from life!” Solomon hastened in the direction of the voice, and found a very aged man, who said he was more than three hundred years old, and that he had asked God to suffer him to live, till there arose a mighty prophet in the land. “I am that prophet,” said Solomon. Then the Angel of Death caught away the old man’s soul. Solomon exclaimed, “Thou must have been beside me, to have acted with such speed, thou Angel of Death.” But the Angel answered, “Great is thy mistake. Know that I stand on the shoulders of an angel, whose head reaches ten thousand years’ journey above the seventh heaven, and whose feet are five hundred years’ journey beneath the earth. He it is who tells me when I am to fetch a soul. His eyes are ever fixed on the tree Sidrat Almuntaha, which bears as many leaves as there are living men in the world; when a man is born, a new leaf buds out; when a man is about to die, the leaf fades, and at his death, falls of; and, when the leaf withers, I fly to fetch the soul, the name of which is inscribed upon the leaf.” “And what doest thou then?” “Gabriel accompanies me, as often as one of the believers dies; his soul is wrapped in a green silk cloth, and is breathed into a green bird, which feeds in Paradise till the end of time. But the soul of the sinner is carried by me in a tarred cloth to the gates of hell, where it wanders in misery till the last day.” Then Solomon washed the body of the dead man, buried him, and prayed for his soul, that it might be eased of the pains it would have to undergo during its purgation by the angels Ankir and Munkir.[668] This journey had so exhausted Solomon, that on his return to Jerusalem he ordered the Jinns to weave him stout silk carpets on which he and all his servants, his throne, tables, and kitchen could be accommodated. When he wanted to go a journey, he ordered the winds to blow, and raise the carpet with all that was on it, and waft it whither he desired to travel.