stay yet a little while, I pray you, and sit upon this couch, and I
will set a table before you, and bread, and you shall eat; and I will
bring you wine old and fragrant, and you shall drink, and so go on
your way." For she did not know that it was an angel who had come to
her. And he said, "I will do so: hasten therefore and make ready."

So first she set before him a table; and as she was going to fetch
the bread he said to her, "Bring a honeycomb also." But at this she
stopped, and was troubled in her mind, for she knew that there was no
honeycomb in her store-room. "Why do you stop?" said the angel.
"Sir," she answered, "let me send a boy to the farm which is near by,
and he shall fetch you a honeycomb in a moment." "No," said he, "you
need only go into your store-room, and you will find one upon the
table; bring that to me." "Sir," she answered, "I know that there is
none there." But he said, "Go and you will find it." She went
therefore and found the honeycomb, as he had said; it was large, and
as white as snow, and full of honey, and the smell of it was as the
breath of life. She wondered greatly, but she would not delay, and
she brought it out and put it on the table before the angel. Then he
called her to him, and as she moved towards him he stretched out his
right hand over her head, and again she was afraid, for she saw
sparks and flashes of fire coming from it, as if it were of heated
iron; so that she gazed upon him earnestly in astonishment. But he
smiled and said, "You are blessed, Aseneth, for you have seen some of
the secret things of God; it is of this honeycomb that the angels eat
in Paradise, and the bees of Paradise have made it of the dew of the
roses of life in the garden of God; and whosoever tastes it shall not
die for ever." Then he put forth his right hand and took a piece of
the honeycomb, and tasted it, and gave a portion to Aseneth, and she
ate it; and he said, "Now you have received the food of life, and