Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/105

Rh but when the prophet begged that the city and Temple might also be spared, the invader said that he had received command from Allah to destroy them.

In proof of his statement, he bade Jeremiah watch the flight of three arrows which he shot at random. The first was aimed westwards, but turned in an opposite direction and struck the roof of the Temple at Jerusalem. The second arrow, which was pointed northwards, acted in the same manner, and so also did the third, which was shot southwards. The city and Temple were utterly destroyed, and the golden furniture of the latter conveyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s orders to Rome (sic).

’Ozair, however, received a promise from Allah that he should be privileged to behold the restoration of Jerusalem. Passing the ruins one day, with a donkey and a basket of figs, he could not help expressing a doubt if this were possible, when Allah caused him to fall asleep for a whole century, at the end of which he was restored to life and found the city rebuilt, populous, and prosperous. The skeleton of his ass, being restored to life and covered with flesh and skin, began to bray, and was admitted into Paradise, as a reward to that one of its ancestors which had been wrongfully beaten for refusing to convey Iblis into the ark. On beholding the resurrection of his donkey, ’Ozair was convinced that his experiences were real and that he had actually been asleep for a hundred years. He then, in obedience to the Divine command, entered Jerusalem and instructed its inhabitants in Allah’s Law. The very