The Hermetic Museum, Vol. I — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)

Prophet had spoken: *Behold, we have a secret son, who with others has been changed. Behold,a virgin has conceived, the virgin that is called Apdorossa, that is, the sealed one, who suffers not others." Because her daughter was still unmarried, she had concealed her dowry beneath her feet, lest in the present war she should be deprived of her wealth by soldiers. But I was not to be deterred by her foul garments, but to choose her daughter from among all the rest for my beloved one, and the pleasure of my life. IfIdid so she would give mea lye with which I could cleanse her garments. Moreover, with her hand I should receive the flowing salt, the incombustible oil, and an inestimable treasure. ^ She was about to declare this to me more in detail, when Solomon turned round, looked askance at me, and said : * I am the wisest of men, and my pleasant harem and the glory and the beauty of my queens excel the gold of Ophir. The ornaments of my concubines shame the rays of the sun, and the beauty of my virgins the light of the moon. My virgins are heavenly, my wisdom inscrutable, my mind past finding out."

Then I answered, while I bowed down to the ground with awe: * Behold, if I have found grace in your eyes—for I am lowly—give me that naked virgein whom I have chosen from among all, to preserve my life. Her garments are old, defiled, and foul, but I will purge them, and love her with all my heart. Let her be my sister, my spouse, since one glance of her eyes has stolen away my heart, and I am sick with love for her." On hearing this Solomon straightway gave her to me. With that there arose a tumult in the harem, which roused me from my sleep, Now I knew not what had happened to me; but I took it for some dream, and thereupon until the light dawned I was full of subtle thoughts. But when I had risen, and poured forth my prayers, behold, I saw the garments of the naked virgin lying by my bedside, and when I saw not her, my hair stood on end, and I was covered with a cold perspiration. But I took heart and recalled my dream, and endeavoured to remember whether it had been real or not. But seeing that my pondering could explain nothing, I would by no means look again upon the garments, much less did I dare to touch them. So I changed my chamber, and, out of sheer ignorance, left those garments lying there a long time. For I feared that if I touched them or turned them over, something remarkable would happen to me. Now the poisonous odour of the garments which I had inhaled in my sleep was so sickening that my eyes could not see the time of grace, or my heart understand the great wisdom of Solomon.

After the garments had lain five years in the chamber, I at length determined to throw them into the fire, and change my dwelling. In the night after I had formed this resolution, that ancient woman appeared to me in a dream,and rebuked with the following angry words: '" Most ungrateful of mortals, the garments of my daughter, beneath which lie concealed those priceless jewels, have now been committed to thee for more than five years. Yet in all that time thou hast not cleansed or purified them, and now thou thinkest to burn them ; is it not enough that thou art the cause of my daughters death?" Then I answered, wrathfullyi: * How am I to understand thy words? Wouldst thou make me out to be a robber, though during those five years I have never seen thy daughter, or heard a syllable about her? How can I possibly be the cause of her death?" Here she took me up: * All this is true. Nevertheless thou hast sinned grievously against God, and on that account hast not received from me my daughter, or the lye of the Sages wherewith to cleanse her garments. For since thou wert from the very first horrified at the sight of my daughter's garments, the planet Saturn, her grandfather, was wroth, and changed her into what she was before her birth ^ Moreover, thou hast offended him by despising her, and being the cause of her death, corruption, and final destruction. She it is of whom Senior thus speaks: *Woe, woe unto me! Bring me a naked woman, while my body was yet invisible, and I had not yet become a mother, till I should be born a second time; then I brought forth all the strength of the vegetable roots, and carried off the victory in my essence'" These words sounded strange and mysterious to me, yet I manfully repressed my wrath, and solemnly protested that I knew nothing of her daughter's decease, and certainly had not been the cause of her death, corruption, and destruction ; thatI had kept her garments five years in my chamber, but had been