Section 14

When Enishbai heard this, she cried out and she said: "Of all these names which you name, will I not give him one; but the name Yahyā-Yōhānā will I give him, [the name] which Life's self has given unto him." When the Jews heard this, they were filled with wicked anger against her and said: "What weapon shall we make ready for [a certain] one 2 and his mother, that he be slain by our hand?" When Anōsh, 3 the treasure, 4 heard this be took the child and brought it to Parwan, the white mountain, to Mount Parwan, on which sucklings and little ones on holy drink are reared up. 5 [There I remained] until I was two and twenty years old. 6 I learned there the whole of my wisdom and made fully my own the p. 58 whole of my discourse. They clothed me with vestures of glory and veiled me with cloud-veils. 1 They wound round me a girdle, 2 of [living] water a girdle, which shone beyond measure and glistened. They set me within a cloud, a cloud of splendour, and in the seventh hour of a Sunday they brought me to the Jerusalem region. Then cried a voice in Judća, a crying proclaimed in Jerusalem. They call out: "What woman had a son, who then was stolen? What woman has made for him a vow 3 and been heedless about it? What woman had a son, who was stolen? Let her come and see after her son." Who told Battai, who instructed Battai, who told Battai to go and say to Enishbai: "A youth has come to Judća, a prophet come to Jerusalem. A youth has come to Judća; his guardian angel stands by him. His mouth is like thee and his lips [like] his father, Old Father Zakhriā. His eyes are like thee and his brows [like] his father, Old Father Zakhriā. His nose is like thee and his hands [like] his father, Old Father Zakhriā." When Enishbai heard this, she hurried out veil-less. When Old Father Zakhriā saw her thus, he wrote her a bill of divorcement. The Sun down-murmured from heaven and the Moon from its place mid the stars. The Sun opened his mouth and spoke to Old Father Zakhriā in Jerusalem: "Old Father Zakhriā, thou great dotard (?), who has grown old and lost his wits, like an Arab whom his kismet has forsaken. 4 A youth has come to Judća, a prophet come to Jerusalem. A youth has come to Judća; why dost thou send Enishbai away?"