He had such remarkable beauty in childhood that Josephus says, when he
was carried along the road, people stopped to gaze at him, and
workmen would leave their work to admire him. When the king playfully
put his crown upon this boy, he threw it off indignantly, and put his
foot on it. The king, fearing that this might be a sign that the child
might yet take down his crown, applied another test. According to the
Jewish legend, the king ordered two bowls to be put before the child,
one containing rubies, and the other burning coals. And if he took the
coals he was to live, and if he took the rubies he was to die. For
some reason the child took one of the coals, and put it in his mouth,
so that his life was spared, although it burned the tongue till he was
indistinct of utterance ever after. Having come to manhood, he spread
open the palms of his hands in prayer and the Red Sea parted to let
two million five hundred thousand people escape. And he put the palms
of his hands together in prayer and the Red Sea closed on a
strangulated host.