stand still, he had to command him to be silent. His song of
praise hushed, the sun stood still.[102]

The sun is double-faced; one face, of fire, is directed toward
the earth, and one of hail, toward heaven, to cool off the
prodigious heat that streams from the other face, else the earth
would catch afire. In winter the sun turns his fiery face upward,
and thus the cold is produced.[103] When the sun descends in the
west in the evening, he dips down into the ocean and takes a
bath, his fire is extinguished, and therefore he dispenses
neither light nor warmth during the night. But as soon as he
reaches the east in the morning, he laves himself in a stream of
flame, which imparts warmth and light to him, and these he sheds
over the earth. In the same way the moon and the stars take a
bath in a stream of hail before they enter upon their service for
the night.[104]

When the sun and the moon are ready to start upon their round of
duties, they appear before God, and beseech him to relieve them
of their task, so that they may be spared the sight of sinning
mankind. Only upon compulsion they proceed with their daily
course. Coming from the presence of God, they are blinded by the
radiance in the heavens, and they cannot find their way. God,
therefore, shoots off arrows, by the glittering light of which
they are guided. It is on account of the sinfulness of man, which
the sun is forced to contemplate on his rounds, that he grows
weaker as the time of his going down approaches, for sins have a
defiling and enfeebling effect, and he drops from the horizon as
a sphere of blood, for blood is the sign of corruption.[105] As
the sun sets forth on his course in the morning, his wings touch