[ Page 265.] Asses in bridles of riband inscribed from the Koran
As the judges of Israel in ancient days rode on white asses, so, amongst the Mahometans, those that affect an extraordinary sanctity use the same animal in preference to the horse. Sir John Chardin observed, in various parts of the East, that their reins, as here represented, were of silk, with the name of God, or other inscriptions, upon them.—Ludeke, Expos. brevis, p. 49. Chardin’s MS. cited by Harmer.
[ Page 266.] One of these beneficent genii, assuming the exterior of a shepherd, etc., began to pour from his flute, etc.
The flute was considered as a sacred instrument, which Jacob and other holy shepherds had sanctified by using.—Religious Ceremonies, vol. vii, p. 110.
[ Page 266.] ... involuntarily drawn towards the declivity of the hill
A similar instance of attraction may be seen in the Story of Prince Ahmed and the Peri Parabanou.—Arabian Nights, vol. iv, p. 243.
[ Page 267.] Eblis
D’Herbelot supposes this title to have been a corruption of the Greek Διαβολος, diabolos. It was the appellation conferred by the Arabians upon the prince of the apostate angels, whom they represent as exiled to the infernal regions, for refusing to worship Adam at the command of the Supreme, and appears more likely to originate from the Hebrew הבל hebel, vanity, pride.—See below, the note, p. 305, “Creatures of clay.”
[ Page 267.] ... compensate for thy impieties by an exemplary life
It is an established article of the Mussulman creed, that the actions of mankind are all weighed in a vast unerring balance, and the future condition of the agents determined according to the preponderance of evil or good. This fiction, which seems to have been borrowed from the Jews, had probably its origin in the figurative language of Scripture. Thus, Psalm lxii, 9: “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity”; and in Daniel, the sentence against the King of Babylon, inscribed on the wall, “Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.”