he was an Ethiopian, and was sold as a slave to the Israelites during
the reign of David. According to one version, he was a carpenter;
another describes him as having been originally a tailor; while a third
account states that he was a shepherd. If the Arabs may be credited, he
was nearly related to the patriarch Job. Among the anecdotes which are
recounted of his amiable disposition is the following: His master once
gave him a bitter lemon to eat. Lokman ate it all, upon which his
master, greatly astonished, asked him: "How was it possible for you to
eat so unpalatable a fruit?" Lokman replied: "I have received so many
favours from you, that it is no wonder I should once in my life eat a
bitter melon from your hand." Struck with this generous answer, the
master, it is said, immediately gave him his freedom.--A man of eminence
among the Jews, observing a great crowd around Lokman, eagerly listening
to his discourse, asked him whether he was not the black slave who
lately tended the sheep of such a person, to which Lokman replying in
the affirmative, "How was it possible," continued his questioner, "for
thee to attain so exalted a degree of wisdom and piety?" Lokman
answered: "By always speaking the truth; keeping my word; and never
intermeddling in affairs that did not concern me."--Being asked from
whom he had learned urbanity, he replied: "From men of rude manners, for
whatever I saw in them that was disagreeable I avoided doing myself."
And when asked from whom he had acquired his philosophy, he said: "From
the blind, who never advance a step until they have tried the ground."
Lokman is also credited with this apothegm: "Be a learned man, a
disciple of the learned, or an auditor of the learned; at least, be a
lover of knowledge and desirous of improvement."--In Persian and Turkish
tales Lokman sometimes figures as a highly skilled physician, and "wise
as Lokman" is proverbial throughout the Muhammedan world.