Book 2 Summary

On the advice of a sorcerer, Aladine steals a large, ornate statue of the Virgin Mary from a church and locks it in a temple (probably a mosque). The following morning the statue has disappeared, and the poet says the Hand of God took it away and kept it safe. Aladine furiously raids all the Christian homes in Jerusalem in search of the statue, destroying all other Christian statues and monuments in his wake. The poet compares his actions to those of the Biblical Herod who, upon hearing that a savior (Christ) had been born, sent his armies through Israel with an order to kill all the male children.

A beautiful young Christian woman named Sophronia confesses to having stolen the statue, and faces execution. Because her claim is a lie, the poet compares her actions to those of Christ, in that they...