knowledge and stature, for GOD giveth his kingdom unto whom he pleaseth; GOD is bounteous and wise. e Yahya interprets this from a tradition of Mohammed, who, being asked which was the middle prayer, answered, The evening prayer, which was instituted by the prophet Solomon. But Jallalo'ddin allows a greater lattitude, and supposes it may be the afternoon prayer, the morning prayer, the noon prayer, or any other. f These were some of the children of Israel, who abandoned their dwellings because of a pestilence, or, as others say, to avoid serving in a religious war; but, as they fled, God struck them all dead in a certain valley. About eight days or more after, when their bodies were corrupted, the prophet Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, happening to pass that way, at the sight of their bones wept; whereupon God said to him, Call to them, O Ezekiel, and I will restore them to life. And accordingly on the prophet's call they all arose, and lived several years after; but they retained the colour and stench of dead corpses as long as they lived, and the clothes they wore changed as black as pitch, which qualities they transmitted to their posterity.1 As to the number of these Israelites the commentators are not agreed; they who reckon least say they were 3,000, and they who reckon most, 70,000. This story seems to have been taken from Ezekiel's vision of the resurrection of dry bones.2 Some of the Mohammedan writers will have Ezekiel to have been one of the judges of Israel, and to have succeeded Othoniel the son of Caleb. They also call this prophet Ebn al ajûz, or the son of the old woman; because they say his mother obtained him by her prayers in her old age.3 g viz., By contributing towards the establishment of his true religion. h So the Mohammedans name Saul. 1 Jallalo'ddin, Yahya, Abulfeda, &c. 2 Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10. 3 Al Thalabi, Abu Ishak, &c.