[304] The story of this young man is thus related:—A certain man at his death left his son, then a child, a cow-calf, which wandered in the desert till he came to age; at which time his mother told him the heifer was his, and bid him fetch her and sell her for three pieces of gold. When the young man came to the market with his heifer, an angel in the shape of a man accosted him and bid him six pieces of gold for her; but he would not take the money till he had asked his mother’s consent; which when he had obtained, he returned to the market-place, and met the angel, who now offered him twice as much for the heifer, provided he would say nothing of it to his mother; but the young man, refusing, went and acquainted her with the additional offer. The woman, perceiving it was an angel, bid her son go back and ask him what must be done with the heifer; whereupon the angel told the young man that in a little time the children of Israel would buy that heifer of him at any price.—S. (A.F.) [305] The more common tradition seems to be that the man was murdered by _one_ person, the son of his brother, who desired to obtain his property (as his inheritance), or his daughter, or both. (Mir-át-ez-Zemán). [306] Also called El-Khaḍir. This mysterious person, whom the vulgar and some others regard as a prophet, and identify with Ilyás (Elias or Elijah), and whom some confound with St. George, was, according to the more approved opinion of the learned, a just man or saint, the Wezeer and counsellor of that equally doubtful personage Dhu-l-Ḳarneyn, whose story has already been related in this volume. El-Khiḍr is said to have drunk of the Fountain of Life, by virtue of which he still lives, and will live till the day of judgment. He is also said to appear frequently to Muslims in perplexity, and to be generally clad in green garments; whence, according to some, his name.—Sale states, in a note on this passage, that the Muslims usually confound El-Khiḍr with Phineas, as well as Elias and St. George, saying that his soul passed by a metempsychosis successively through all three; and he adds, that part of these fictions they took from the Jews, some of whom also fancy Phineas was Elias. [307] Or, as some rather think, El-Ubulleh, near El-Basrah, or else Bájarwán in Armenia.—S. (B.) [308] They were ten brothers, five of whom were past their labour by reason of their age.—S. (B.) [309] That is, because of the great confidence the Israelites placed in it, having won several battles by its miraculous assistance. I imagine, however, that the Arabic word ‘sekeeneh,’ which signifies ‘tranquillity’ or ‘security of mind,’ and is so understood by the commentators, may not improbably mean the ‘divine presence’ or ‘glory,’ which used to appear on the Ark, and which the Jews express by the same word ‘Shekinah.’—S.