The trials being over, and the assembly dissolved, the Manometans hold that those who are to be admitted into paradise will take the right hand way, and those who are destined into hell-fire will take the left; but both of them must first pass the bridge called in Arabic _al Sirat_, which, they say, is laid over the midst of hell, and described to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword; so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason most of the sect of the Motazalites reject it as a fable; though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this article, that it was seriously affirmed by him who never asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet, who, to add to the difficulty of the passage, has likewise declared that this bridge is beset on each side with briers and hooked thorns, which will, however, be no impediment to the good; for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or the wind, Mahomet, and his Moslems leading the way; whereas the wicked, what with the slipperiness and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the thorns, and the extinction of the light which directed the former to paradise, will soon miss their footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping beneath them. As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mahometans are taught that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, designed for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned. The first, which they call _Jehenan_, they say, will be the receptacle of those who acknowledged one God, that is, the wicked Mahometans; who, after having been punished according to their demerits, will at length be released; the second, named _Ladha_, they assign to the Jews; the third, named _al Hotama_, to the Christians; the fourth, named _al Sair_, to the Sabians; the fifth; named _Sakar_, to the Magians; the sixth, named _al Jahin_, to the idolaters; and the seventh, which is the lowest and worst of all, and is called _al Howyat_, to the hypocrites, or those who outwardly professed some religion, but in their hearts were of none. Over each of these apartments they believe there will be set a guard of angels, nineteen in number; to whom the damned will confess the just judgment of God, and beg them to intercede with him for some alleviation of their pain, or that they may be delivered by being annihilated.