[FN#216] According to Al-Mas’udi (i. 86, quoting Koran xxi. 52), Abraham had already received of Allah spiritual direction or divine grace ("Rushdu ’llah” or “Al-Huda”) which made him sinless.  In this opinoin of the Imamship, says my friend Prof.  A. Sprenger, the historian is more fatalistic than most Sunnis.

[FN#217] Modern Moslems are all agreed in making Ishmael and not Issac the hero of this history:  see my Pilgrimage (vol. iii. 306).  But it was not always so.  Al-Mas’udi (vol. ii. 146) quotes the lines of a Persian poet in A.H. 290 (=A.D. 902) which expressly say “Is’haku kana’l-Zabih” = Isaac was the victim, and the historian refers to this in sundry places.  Yet the general idea is that Ishmael succeeded his father (as eldest son) and was succeeded by Isaac; and hence the bitter family feud between the Eastern Jews and the ARab Gentiles.

[FN#218] In text “Tajui"=lit. thou pluckest (the fruit of good deeds).  M. Houdas translates Tu recueilles, mot a mot tu citeilles.

[FN#219] See note at the end of this tale.

[FN#220] Amongst the Jews the Temple of Jerusalem was a facsimile of the original built by Jehovah in the lowest heaven or that of the Moon.  For the same idea (doubtless a derivation from the Talmud) amongst the Moslems concerning the heavenly Ka’abah called Bayt al-Ma’mur (the Populated House) see my Pilgrimage iii. 186, et seq.

[FN#221] i.e. there is an end of the matter.

[FN#222] In text “Massa-hu’l Fakr"=poverty touched him.

[FN#223] He had sold his father for a horse, etc., and his mother for a fine dress.

[FN#224] This enigma is in the style of Samson’s (Judges xiv. 12) of which we complain that the unfortuante Philistines did not possess the sole clue which could lead to the solution; and here anyone with a modicum of common sense would have answered, “Thou art the man!” The riddles with which the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon must have been simply hard questions somewhat like those in the text; and the relator wisely refuses to record them.

[FN#225] We should say “To eclipse the sun.”

[FN#226] A very intelligible offer.

[FN#227] Arab.  “Bi Asri-hi,” lit. “rope and all;” metaphorically used=altogether, entirely:  the idea is borrowed from the giving or selling of a beast with its thong, halter, chain, etc.

[FN#228] In the text, “Kahin,” a Cohen, a Jewish Priest, a soothsayer:  see Al-Kahanah, vol. i. 28.  In Heb.  Kahana=he ministered (priests’ offices or other business) and Cohen=a priest either of the true God or of false gods.

[FN#229] This ending with its resume of contents is somewhat hors ligne, yet despite its vain repetition I think it advisable to translate it.

[FN#230] “And she called his name Moses, and she said because from the water I drew him” (Exod. ii. 10).

[FN#231] The Pharoah of the Exodus is popularly supposed by Moslems to have treated his leprosy with baths of babes’ blood, the babes being of the Banu Israil.  The word “Pharoah” is not without its etymological difficulties.