house with a bowl of fine flour, which she desired Abraham to place as a votive offering before the idols.  Instead of doing this, however, Abraham took a hammer and broke all the idols into fragments excepting the largest, into whose hands he then placed the hammer.  On Terah’s return he discovered the destruction of his idols, and angrily demanded of Abraham, who had done the mischief.  “There came hither a woman,” replied Abraham, “with a bowl of fine flour, which, as she desired, I set before the gods, whereupon they disputed among themselves who should eat first, and the tallest god broke all the rest into pieces with the hammer.”  “What fable is this thou art telling me?” exclaimed Terah.  “As for the god thou speakest of, is he not the work of my own hands?’ Did I not carve him out of the timber of the tree which I cut down in the wilderness?  How, then, could he have done this evil?  Verily thou hast broken my idols!” “Consider, my father,” said Abraham, “what it is thou sayest—­that I am capable of destroying the gods which thou dost worship!” Then Terah took and delivered him to Nimrod, who said to Abraham:  “Let us worship the fire.”  To which Abraham replied:  “Rather the water that quenches the fire.”  “Well, the water.”  “Rather the cloud which carries the water.”  “Well, the cloud.”  “Rather the wind that scatters the cloud.”  “Well, the wind.”  “Rather man, for he endures the wind.”  “Thou art a babbler!” exclaimed Nimrod.  “I worship the fire, and will cast thee into it.  Perchance the God whom thou dost adore will deliver thee from thence.”  Abraham was accordingly thrown into a heated furnace, but God saved him.[94]

   [94] After Abraham had walked to and fro unscathed amidst the
        fierce flames for three days, the faggots were suddenly
        transformed into a blooming garden of roses and
        fruit-trees and odoriferous plants.—­This legend is
        introduced into the Kuran, and Muslim writers, when they
        expatiate on the almighty power of Allah, seldom omit to
        make reference to Nimrod’s flaming furnace being turned
        into a bed of roses.

* * * * *

Alexander the Great is said to have wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer; and truly says the sage Hebrew King, “The grave and destruction can never have enough, nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied” (Prov. xxvii, 20), a sentiment which the following tale, or parable, is designed to exemplify: 

The Vanity of Ambition.

Pursuing his journey through dreary deserts and uncultivated ground, Alexander came at last to a small rivulet, whose waters glided peacefully along their shelving banks.  Its smooth, unruffled surface was the image of contentment, and seemed in its silence to say, “This is the abode of tranquility.”  All was still:  not a sound was heard save soft murmuring tones which seemed to whisper in the ear