Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/164

 146 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

with f Amru, says : l " The Apostle of God said : ( (David) slept half the night, rose for a third, and then slept again for a sixth.'" The Babbis also speak of this, on the strength of the 2 verse, " At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee," and they assert that David used to sleep only daring sixty respirations. 3 David is also known to Muhammad as the author of the Psalms. 4 The affair of the Sabbath-breakers, who were punished by being changed into apes, is also supposed to belong to the time of David, but the circumstance is mentioned 5 only in general terms, and nothing definite is given about time or details, except in verse 82, where the time is given, but not the fact. Among the Jews there is no trace of this legend. The life of Solomon 6 is in itself unimportant, and it is only the wisdom for which he is famed in the Bible which makes him the hero of the whole Bast, one might therefore expect to find much more about him in the Quran than really exists there. Muhammad speaks of his wisdom, 7 and especially brings forward the fact that Solomon understood the language of the birds. This is also asserted by the Eabbis, and is founded on the Biblical

statement : 8 "He spake of trees and birds." The

winds 9 also performed his will, and the Genii were found in his following ; 10 this is also related, e.g,, in the second

3 Palms, cxix. 62. 3 ^ttb T^tt? (Beracliotb).

4 j Suras IV. 161, XVII. 57.

5 Suras II. 61, IV. 50, V. 65, VII, 166.

6 gW" 7 Sura XXVII. 15, 16.

8 1 Kings, v. is. rfiay bs) tyssn bi? -ISY>.!

5

9 gjj here probably means the spirits of the air, like j-yirm 10 Suras XXL 81, 82, XXXIV. 11, 12, XXXVIII. 35-9,