After an anecdote of 'Isa being obliged to ascend a mountain to get away from the fools comes the story of the men of Saba. "A sign there was to Saba in their dwelling-places two gardens, the one on the right hand and the other on the left; 'Eat ye of your Lord's supplies, and give thanks to Him; goodly is the country and gracious is the Lord.' But they turned aside, so we sent upon them the flood of lram. Such was our retribution on them for their ingratitude." The men of Saba were all fools, and brought destruction on themselves by their ingratitude to God. One was far-sighted, and yet blind; another sharp of hearing, and yet deaf; and a third naked, and yet wearing a long robe. Avarice is blind to its own faults, but sees those of others; the sharp-eared deaf man hears death approaching others, but not himself, and the long-robed naked man is he who fears robbers, though he has nothing to lose. In fact, all these men of Saba were afflicted with follies and self-delusions of this kind, and gave no thanks to God for the blessings which they enjoyed. Accordingly thirteen prophets were sent to admonish them, but their admonitions were not listened to, the men of Saba questioning their divine mission and demanding a miracle as a sign. They also told the prophets a parable of a clever hare, who, wishing to frighten an elephant away from a fountain, went to the elephant, pretending to be an ambassador from the moon. The prophets were naturally indignant at the effrontery of the men of Saba in misapplying parables to discredit their divine mission, and reminded them that wicked men had flouted the prophet Noah in the same way when he was warning them of the flood. And they demonstrated at length how the men of Saba had misapplied the parable of the hare and the elephant, and again adjured them to believe. But the men of Saba continued refractory, and would not, accept the Prophets' counsels. They plied the prophets with the arguments of the Compulsionists (Jabriyan), and refused to be convinced of the fallacy of their reasoning. So at last the prophets despaired of them, and left them to their doom.

The fool surely has not gone up to heaven and seen or heard them, these are mere fables; then, in the power of my knowledge, I would have you warned,...

For there is found a very high Thing in the Virtue and Power of the Stars; [which is,] that every Life, Growth, Colour, and Virtue, Thickness, and Thi...

These folk also collect extracts from the prophets, making a selection and mischievously stringing them together. They interpret in a literal sense...

Then God sent the Deluge [or Flood] upon the whole World, and drowned all Flesh, except Noah, who cleaved to the Word of God; he and his Sons and...

What were the great and the small prophets? Vulgar, plain and mean people: some of them but country people and herdsmen, counted the underlings or...

They want to appear to the tribes as though they are not men, and they only do this to deceive us, we the people. Their hearts wish something. Surely,...

To send the Flood, to crack the Whip. Do not snatch your feet away, do not turn your back,... strike even harder!"... may they be expelled.... head...

Also when the Heathens should hear, that God would send this People, which he had brought out of Egypt with great Wonders [or Miracles,] among them...

Then a man came before Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam and [this man], who was a messenger of Xibalba, spoke thus: "This is, in...

Yea, they cried to them, but they did not hearken to what they said to them, but were exceedingly deaf, and their eyes were very exceedingly blinded.

The chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables: they perceived that he had spoken the parables against them. And they sought to lay hold on...

And in reality they prophesied "in an ecstasy," as the servants of the apostate. And the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, says to Hermas, of the fal...

And the Lord smote them with malignant ulcers, arid they were not able to stand, for we destroyed them so that they could not perform a single sign.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corr...

And one of them drew a sword, and gave it to those elephants and camels and asses: then they began to smite each other, and the whole earth quaked bec...

A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which...

Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêq...

Woe unto them, woe unto the children of men! For they grope as the blind in the darkness and see not. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, in this great blindn...

Such men are mingled by the Enemy of human welfare among those who seek to do good, thus making Truth more difficult of discovery. Believe us, Truth i...

And we did according to all His words : all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation, and a tenth part of them we left that they ...