Hermes Trismegistus said, “I know of Zabulun, the wrong-doing Enchanter. But what have I to do with one who is so removed from wisdom?”
I prayed him again, saying, “Save us from this wrong-doing Enchanter who would destroy us. He has come near us often, and he will assuredly overtake us if you do not give us help, O thrice-great Hermes.”
Then Hermes said, “Near the Western Island there dwells an Enchanter whose name is Merlin. Not one of the great Enchanters is he, nor like to Chiron or myself, for he chooses to love rather than to be wise. He is nearer to Zabulun than we are, but yet he is not a wrong-doing Enchanter. Go to Merlin and say to him that you have been within the cell of Hermes Trismegistus, and that you have heard from him the answer to the riddle that the Sphinx asks, and Merlin will show you how you both may be saved from Zabulun, the wrong-doing Enchanter.
“But to come to Merlin’s island, which is west of the Western Island, you will have first to go amongst the Atlantes, who live by the Western Ocean. They eat no living thing and they never have dreams. When you come to them, seek out the wisest amongst them, and ask him to tell you of Merlin, and of how you may come to him.
“To come to the Atlantes you will have to pass by the Sphinx in the desert. Few ever pass her, for she has a riddle that she asks of every one. And the one who cannot answer her riddle is torn to pieces by the Sphinx. But I shall tell you the answer to give to the riddle that the Sphinx asks.”
Then Hermes, thrice-great Hermes, told us the Sphinx’s riddle and the answer that we should make to it. He told us the way we should go to pass by the Sphinx and come to the people that are called the Atlantes. We left the cell of Hermes, and passed out of the pyramid, and went on our way.
We came to where the great Sphinx stretches herself out in the sand, and by the light of a great moon we saw her lion’s paws and her woman’s face. We heard the purring sound that comes through the lips of the Sphinx, and we halted between her paws.
“What is Man?” said the Sphinx, asking her riddle.
The paws that stretched alongside of us were quiet, and the voice of the Sphinx was very quiet. We saw her face far above us, and it was calm, though there was much scorn and fierceness in it.
“What is Man?” said the Sphinx.