When the angel had floated upward and out of sight, Titurel returned home.  After disposing of all his property, reserving nothing but his armor and trusty sword, he again returned to the spot where he had been favored with the divine message.  There he saw a mysterious white cloud, which seemed to beckon him onward.  Titurel followed it, passed through vast solitudes and almost impenetrable woods, and eventually began to climb a steep mountain, whose ascent at first seemed impossible.  Clinging to the rocks, and gazing ever ahead at the guiding cloud, Titurel came at last to the top of the mountain, where, in a beam of refulgent light, he beheld the Holy Grail, borne in the air by invisible hands.  He raised his heart in passionate prayer that he might be found worthy to guard the emerald-colored wonder which was thus intrusted to his care, and in his rapture hardly heeded the welcoming cries of a number of knights in shining armor, who hailed him as their king.

The vision of the Holy Grail was as evanescent as beautiful, and soon disappeared; but Titurel, knowing that the spot was holy, guarded it with all his might against the infidels, who would fain have climbed the mountain.

After several years had passed without the Holy Grail’s coming down to earth, Titurel conceived the plan of building a temple suitable for its reception.  The knights who helped to build and afterward guarded this temple were called “Templars.”  Their first effort was to clear the mountain top, which they found was one single onyx of enormous size.  This they leveled and polished until it shone like a mirror, and upon this foundation they prepared to build their temple.

[Sidenote:  Temple of the Holy Grail.] As Titurel was hesitating what plan to adopt for the building, he prayed for guidance, and when he arose on the morrow he found the ground plan all traced out and the building materials ready for use.  The knights labored piously from morning till night, and when they ceased, invisible hands continued to work all night.  Thus pushed onward, the work was soon completed, and the temple rose on the mountain top in all its splendor.  “The temple itself was one hundred fathoms in diameter.  Around it were seventy-two chapels of an octagonal shape.  To every pair of chapels there was a tower six stories high, approachable by a winding stair on the outside.  In the center stood a tower twice as big as the others, which rested on arches.  The vaulting was of blue sapphire, and in the center was a plate of emerald, with the lamb and the banner of the cross in enamel.  All the altar stones were of sapphire, as symbols of the propitiation of sins.  Upon the inside of the cupola surmounting the temple, the sun and moon were represented in diamonds and topazes, and shed a light as of day even in the darkness of the night.  The windows were of crystal, beryl, and other transparent stones.  The floor was of translucent crystal, under which all the fishes of the sea were carved out of onyx,