is not as a female; I have called her Mary, and I commend her to thy protection, and also her issue against Satan driven with stones[1]. Therefore the Lord accepted her with a gracious acceptance, and caused her to bear an excellent offspring. And Zacharias took care of the child; whenever Zacharias went into the chamber to her, he found provisions with her: and he said, O Mary, whence hadst thon this? She answered, This is from God: for God provideth for whom he pleaseth without measure. Then Zacharias called on his Lord, and said, Lord, give me from thee a good offspring, for thou art the hearer of
- ↑ A superstitions notion prevails among the Musulmans, that when Satan tempted Abraham to disobey God by not offering his son, that the patriarch pelted him with stones, in commemoration of which, at the pilgrimage to Mecca, they cast stones, with various ceremonies, in the valley of Mina,
The story of the wife of Joachim, viz. her devoting Mary to the service of the temple, seems to be taken from the Prot-evangelion of James, or the Gospel of the birth of Mary, two Apocryphal books now lost.—See Jones on the Canonical authority of the New Testament.
