_Stanza 1._—The story of the creation of Adam, and of the part played in
it by the angels, is told by Mahommad in the following terms: “When thy
Lord said unto the angels, I am going to place a substitute on earth;
they said, Wilt thou place there one who will do evil therein, and shed
blood? but we celebrate thy praise and sanctify thee. God answered,
Verily I know that which ye know not; and he taught Adam the names of
all things, and then proposed them to the angels, and said, Declare unto
me the names of these things if ye say truth. They answered, Praise be
unto thee, we have no knowledge but what thou teachest us, for thou art
knowing and wise. God said, Oh Adam, tell them their names. And when he
had told them their names, God said, Did I not tell you that I know the
secrets of heaven and earth, and know that which ye discover and that
which ye conceal? And when we said unto the angels, Worship Adam; they
all worshipped him, except Eblis, who refused, and was puffed up with
pride, and became of the number of unbelievers.”—_Koran_, chap. ii.
Tradition has amplified and adorned this story. It is said that the
three archangels, Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil, were each in turn
ordered to take from the earth seven handfuls of clay of three different
colours, red, white, and yellow, that God might create out of it the
races of mankind. But each in turn was moved by the earth’s prayer that
he would not rob her of her substance, and each returned to heaven
empty-handed. The fourth time God sent Azrail, the angel of death, who
tore the seven handfuls from the earth, but hearing her lamentations,
promised her that when man ceased to live his substance should return to
the earth from whence it had been taken. With the clay that Azrail
brought him God moulded the figure of man, and when it was finished he
left it forty days to dry. The angels came often to gaze upon it, and
Eblis, kicking it with his foot, found that it rang hollow. When the
figure of clay was dry, God breathed the breath of life into its
nostrils, and ordered the angels to submit to the man he had created.
But Eblis refused, saying that he had been created of pure fire, and
would not serve a hollow mould of clay; for which reason God cast him
out of Paradise. The rest of the angels acknowledged the superiority of
Adam after God had made him tell them the names of all the creatures of
the earth, though they had at first protested that it was not seemly
that they should bow down to him, for their love for God was greater
than his. It is with this legend in his mind that Hafiz speaks of the
angels as standing at the tavern door, where man may enter and receive
instruction in God’s wisdom, but where they must knock in vain, and as
moulding a wine-cup with the despised clay out of which the human body
was moulded. I think he means that man himself is the vessel into which
divine love and wisdom are poured; and when he says that the angels
first brought him wine, he means that by their example they showed him
what it was to be intoxicated by the contemplation of God.
_Stanza 3._—“Concerning the forbidden fruit,” says Sale in a note to the
second chapter of the Koran, “the Mohammadans, as well as the
Christians, have different opinions. Some say it was an ear of wheat,
some will have it to have been a fig-tree, and others a vine.”
There are supposed to be seventy-two sects in Islam. Many Mahommadan
writers compare them to the seventy-two branches of the family of Noah
after the Babylonian confusion of tongues and the dispersal of the
children of Adam.