[310] Sale observes that Yaḥyá most rationally understands hereby the divine revelations which David received from God, and not the art of making coats of mail.—The cause of his applying himself to this art is thus related in the Mir-át-ez-Zemán:—He used to go forth in disguise; and when he found any people who knew him not, he approached them and asked them respecting the conduct of David, and they praised him and prayed for him; but one day, as he was asking questions respecting himself as usual, God sent to him an angel in the form of a human being, who said, ‘An excellent man were David if he did not take from the public treasury:’—whereupon the heart of David was contracted, and he begged of God to render him independent: so He made iron soft to him, and it became in his hands as thread; and he used to sell a coat of mail for four thousand [pieces of money—whether gold or silver is not said], and with part of this he obtained food for himself, and part he gave in alms, and with part he fed his family.—Hence an excellent coat of mail is often called by the Arabs ‘Dáwoodee,’ _i.e._, ‘Davidean.’ See my translation of ‘The Thousand and One Nights,’ chap. viii. note 5. [311] For David, they say, divided his time regularly, setting apart one day for the service of God, another day for rendering justice to his people, another day for preaching to them, and another day for his own affairs.—S. (B.) [312] They say that he had a carpet of green silk, on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, and sufficient for all his forces to stand on, the men placing themselves on his right hand, and the spirits [or jinn] on his left; and that when all were in order the wind at his command took up the carpet and transported it with all that were upon it wherever he pleased; the army of birds at the same time flying over their heads and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun.—S. [313] Whither the wind brought back Solomon’s throne in the evening, after having carried it to a distant country in the morning.—S. [314] After the space of forty days, which was the time the image had been worshipped in his house, the devil [or jinnee] flew away, and threw the signet into the sea: the signet was immediately swallowed by a fish, which being taken and given to Solomon, he found the ring in its belly, and, having by this means recovered the kingdom, took Ṣakhr, and, tying a great stone to his neck, threw him into the Lake of Tiberias.—S. (B., A.F.) [315] See note 30 to the Introduction of my translation of the ‘Thousand and One Nights.’