or, says the author of this exposition,
some pretending to go deeper have put an interpretation upon those
things that are delivered concerning the world to come, such as the
balance, and the way, and some other things besides, but it is heresy."

FOOTNOTES:

[49] This famous structure (in the Arabic, _Kef'bah_--a square building)
for over twelve hundred years has been the cynosure of the Moslem
peoples. It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, being mentioned by
Diodorus the historian in the latter part of the first century, at which
time its sanctity was acknowledged and its idols venerated by the
Arabians and kindred tribes who paid yearly visits to the shrine to
offer their devotions.

According to the Arabian legend Adam, after his expulsion from the
Garden, worshipped Allah on this spot. A tent was then sent down from
heaven, but Seth substituted a hut for the tent. After the Flood,
Abraham and Ishmael rebuilt the Kaaba.

At present it is a cube-shaped, flat-roofed building of stone in the
Great Mosque at Mecca. In its southeast corner next to the silver door
is the famous black stone "_hajar al aswud_," dropped from paradise. It
was said to have been originally a white stone (by other accounts a
ruby), but the tears--or more probably the kisses--of pilgrims have
turned it quite black.

[50] Palmer has it: "In the mean time Mahomet and Abu-Bekr escaped by a
back window in the house of the latter."

[51] _Zem-sem_, the name of this well, is said by the Moslems to be the
spring which Hagar had revealed to her when driven into the wilderness
with her son, Ishmael.

[52] Friday remains the Sabbath of the Moslems.

[53] His nephew and son-in-law, surnamed "the Lion-hearted."

[54] The Persians add these words, "and Ali is the friend of God." Kouli
Khan, having a mind to unite the two different sects, ordered them to be
omitted.--_Fraser's Life of Kouli Khan_, p. 124.

[55] An Arab of Kossay, named Ammer Ibn Lahay, is said to have first
introduced idolatry among his countrymen; he brought the idol called
Hobal, from Hyt in Mesopotamia, and set it up in the Kaaba. It was the
Jupiter of the Arabians, and was made of red agate in the form of a man
holding in his hand seven arrows without heads or feathers, such as the
Arabs use in divination. At a subsequent period the Kaaba was adorned
with three hundred and sixty idols, corresponding probably to the days
of the Arabian year.--_Burckhardt's Arabia_, pp. 163, 164.