to him and also the doctrine of the Trinity by name. Further than this
his knowledge did not extend; although he knows the Holy Ghost and
identifies him with Jesus, none the less his primitive reasoning,
under the influence of many old beliefs, explained the mysterious
triad of the Trinity as husband, wife, and son. This fact is enough to
prove that his theory of Christianity was formed by combining isolated
scraps of information and that he cannot have had any direct
instruction from a Christian knowing the outlines of his faith.

[Footnote A: The word for "Spirit" is of the feminine gender in the
Semitic languages.]

Muhammed must also have denied the divinity of Christ: this is an
obvious result of the course of mental development which we have
described and of his characteristically Semitic theory of the nature
of God. To him, God is one, never begetting and never begotten.
Denying the divinity of Jesus, Muhammed naturally denies the
redemption through the Cross and also the fact of the Crucifixion.
Yet, strangely enough he accepted the miraculous birth; nor did he
hesitate to provide this purely human Jesus with all miraculous
attributes; these were a proof of his divine commission, and
marvellous details of this nature aroused the interest of his hearers.

Mary the sister of Ahron--an obvious confusion with the Old Testament
Miriam--had been devoted to the service of God by her mother's vow, and
lives in the temple under the guardianship of Zacharias, to whom a
later heir is born in answer to his prayers, namely John, the
forerunner of the Holy Ghost. The birth is announced to Mary and she
brings forth Jesus under a palm-tree, near which is a running spring
and by the dates of which she is fed. On her return home she is