carbuncle. Here was a great angel, composed half of snow and half of fire; yet the snow melted not, nor was the fire extinguished. Around him a choir of lesser angels continually exclaimed, "Oh, Allah! who hast united snow and fire, unite all thy faithful servants in obedience to thy law."
"This," said Gabriel, "is the guardian angel of heaven and earth. It is he who dispatches the angels into individuals of thy nation, to incline them in favor of thy mission and call them to the service of God; and he will continue to do so until the day of resurrection."
Here was the prophet Musa (Moses), who, however, instead of welcoming Mahomet with joy, as the other prophets had done, shed tears at sight of him.
"Wherefore dost thou weep?" inquired Mahomet. "Because I behold a successor who is destined to conduct more of his nation into paradise than ever I could of the backsliding children of Israel."
Mounting hence to the seventh heaven, Mahomet was received by the Patriarch Abraham. This blissful abode is formed of divine light, of such transcendent glory that the tongue of man cannot describe it. One of its celestial inhabitants will suffice to give an idea of the rest. He surpassed the whole earth in magnitude, and had seventy thousand heads; each head seventy thousand mouths; each mouth seventy thousand tongues; each tongue spoke seventy thousand languages, and all these were incessantly employed in chanting the praises of the Most High.
