XXXIII. IMMANUEL B. SOLOMON OF ROME [Italian scholar and satirical poet. He was born at Rome about 1270, and died at Fermo in the first half of the fourteenth century. He excelled as poet, and his style is vivid and fluent. His best known work is _Mahberot ‘Immanuel_, which is modelled after al-Harizi’s _Tahkemoni_. He boasts, however, that he surpassed his model, and in some respects this is not without justification.] The Poet Visits Paradise[207] While we walked to and fro through the streets of Eden, and looked upon the gallery of the men of wisdom, I perceived men full of splendor and majesty, compared to whose beauty the sun and moon are dark; a place was given them in the world of angels. Not recognizing any one of them, I asked the man who talked with me, that I might know concerning them. And he said unto me: These are the pious of the Gentiles, who prevailed with their wisdom and intellect, and ascended the degrees of the ladder of wisdom in accordance with their ability. They were not as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; but they investigated with their intellect as to who is the Maker, and who the Creator that fashioned them with His lovingkindness, took them out from nothingness to existence, and brought them to this world; and as to what is the purpose for which He created them. When they asked their fathers, and considered their answers, they knew that they were worthless; they despised their creed, and set their mind to investigate the creed of other nations. Having investigated all the creeds, and having found that the hands of each of them are steadfast in strengthening its own foundations and in disparaging other creeds, they did not say: ‘Let us remain in our creed, for it has been handed down to us by our fathers,’ but out of all creeds they chose those doctrines which are true, and concerning which the wise men did not differ; these doctrines they accepted, and to them they clung. But to those opinions which all nations disparage they turned their back, not their face. As regards God, they arrogantly call Him by a name at which our heart trembles and shudders, for every nation calls Him by a special name. We, however, say: ‘Let His name be what it may, we believe in the truly First Existence, that produced life; that was, is, and will be; that created the universe, when His wisdom so decided; that is hidden from us through the intensity of His revelation; that faints not, and is not weary, and of whose understanding there is no searching; that has mercy upon His creatures, and feeds them, as a shepherd tends his flock; who will call us unto Him, when our end draws nigh, and whose glory will gather us together.’