[86] The celebrated fabulous ruby of Sultan Giamschid, the embellisher of Istakhar; from its splendour, named Schebgerag [Schabchirāgh], "the torch of night;" also "the cup of the sun," etc. In the First Edition, "Giamschid" was written as a word of three syllables; so D'Herbelot has it; but I am told Richardson reduces it to a dissyllable, and writes "Jamshid." I have left in the text the orthography of the one with the pronunciation of the other. [The MS. and First Edition read, "Bright as the gem of Giamschid." Byron's first intention was to change the line into "Bright as the ruby of Giamschid;" but to this Moore objected, "that as the comparison of his heroine's eye to a ruby might unluckily call up the idea of its being bloodshot, he had better change the line to 'Bright as the jewel,' etc." For the original of Byron's note, see S. Henley's note, _Vathek,_ 1893, p. 230. See, too, D'Herbelot's _Bibliothèque Orientale_, 1781, iii. 27. Sir Richard Burton (_Arabian Nights, S.N._, iii. 440) gives the following _résumé_ of the conflicting legends: "Jám-i-jámshid is a well-known commonplace in Moslem folk-lore; but commentators cannot agree whether 'Jám' be a mirror or a cup. In the latter sense it would represent the Cyathomantic cup of the Patriarch Joseph, and the symbolic bowl of Nestor. Jamshid may be translated either 'Jam the bright,' or 'the Cup of the Sun;' this ancient king is the Solomon of the grand old Guebres." Fitzgerald, "in a very composite quatrain (stanza v.) which cannot be claimed as a translation at all" (see the _Rubáiyát_ of Omar Khayyaām, by Edward Heron Allen, 1898), embodies a late version of the myth-- "Iram is gone and all his Rose, And Jamshyd's sev'n-ringed Cup where no one knows."] [87] {109} Al-Sirat, the bridge of breadth narrower than the thread of a famished spider, and sharper than the edge of a sword, over which the Mussulmans must _skate_ into Paradise, to which it is the only entrance; but this is not the worst, the river beneath being hell itself, into which, as may be expected, the unskilful and tender of foot contrive to tumble with a "facilis descensus Averni," not very pleasing in prospect to the next passenger. There is a shorter cut downwards for the Jews and Christians. [Byron is again indebted to _Vathek_, and S. Henley on _Vathek,_ p. 237, for his information. The authority for the legend of the Bridge of Paradise is not the Koran, but the Book of Mawakef, quoted by Edward Pococke, in his Commentary (_Notæ Miscellaneæ_) on the _Porta Mosis_ of Moses Maimonides (Oxford, 1654, p. 288)-- "Stretched across the back of Hell, it is narrower than a javelin, sharper than the edge of a sword. But all must essay the passage, believers as well as infidels, and it baffles the understanding to imagine in what manner they keep their foothold."