Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/94

72 Enoch said, "I would see Hell, for I have undergone death, and I know its sensations. I would know now the torments of the lost." But the angel answered, "This I cannot grant without permission from the Almighty."

God heard the prayer of Enoch, and He suffered Azrael to accomplish what the prophet had desired. Then the Angel of Death bore away Enoch, and showed him the seven stages of Hell, and all the torments inflicted there on sinners: after that he replaced him where he was before.

After some while had elapsed, Enoch again addressed Azrael, and said, "I have another request to make."

The angel answered, " Say on."

Then said Enoch, "I desire to see the Paradise of God, as I have seen Hell."

Azrael replied, "I cannot grant thy petition without the consent of God." But the All-Merciful, when he heard the request of his servant, consented that it should be even as he desired. So the angel bore Enoch into Paradise. And when they had reached the gates, the keeper, Ridhwan, refused to open, saying to Enoch, "Thou art a man, and no man can enter Paradise who has not tasted death." Then Enoch replied, "I also have tasted death; the soul that I have will dwell eternally with me; God has resuscitated me from death." Ridhwan, however, said, "I cannot do this thing and admit thee without the order of God."

Then the order arrived from Allah, and the angel of the gate refused no more; so Enoch entered; but before Enoch and Azrael passed the gates, Ridhwan said to the prophet, "Go in, and behold Paradise, but be speedy and leave it again, for thou mayst not dwell there till after the Resurrection."

Enoch replied, "Be it so;" and he went in and viewed Paradise, and came out, as he had promised; and as he passed the threshold of the door he turned and said to the angel, "Oh, Ridhwan! I have left something in there; suffer me to run and fetch it."

But Ridhwan refused; and a dispute arose between them. Enoch said, "I am a prophet; and God has sent me thirty books, and I have written them all, and I have never revolted against God. In those books that God sent me, I was promised