since the vessel of a single bed frequently received their sexual
exchanges, the famous prophet contracted the disease of epilepsy,
which we call, in ordinary language, falling sickness; he often
suffered terribly while the terrified prophetess watched his eyes
turning upward, his face twisting, his lips foaming, his teeth
grinding. Frightened by this unexpected turn of events, she hurried
to the hermit, accusing him of the misfortune which was happening to
her. Disturbed and bitter in her heart, she said that she would
prefer to die rather than to endure an execrable marriage to a madman.
She attacked the hermit with countless kinds of complaints about
the bad advice he had given her. But he, who was supplied with
incomparable cleverness, said, "you are foolish for ascribing harm to
what is a source of light and glory. Don't you know, blind woman,
that whenever God glides into the minds of the prophets, the whole
bodily frame is shaken, because the weakness of the flesh can
scarcely bear the visitation of divine majesty? Pull yourself
together, now, and do not be afraid of these unusual visions; look
upon the blessed convulsions of the holy man with gratitude,
especially since spiritual power teaches him at those moments about
the things it will help you to know and to do in the future." Her
womanly flightiness was taken in by these words, and what she had
formerly thought foul and despicable now seemed to her not only
tolerable, but sacred and remrkable. Meanwhile the man was being
filled with profane teaching drawn by the devil's piping through the
heretical hermit. When the hermit, like a herald, went everywhere
before him, Mahomet was believed by everyone to be a prophet. When
far and wide, in the opinion of everyone, his growing reputation
shone, and he saw that people in the surrounding as well as in
distant lands were inclining towards his teachings, after consulting
with his teacher, he wrote a law, in which he loosened the reins of