Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

156 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
gold. And I thought that this was Paradise,
because I had heard that it was situated among
the tops of the highest mountains, and it must
have been nigh unto the Paradise wherein [dwell]
the saints. And when I saw this I made my army
to go down, and there went up with [me] certain
of my soldiers whom I loved; and going up we
arrived at a very high place, and, behold, there
A garden appeared a lovely garden and flowers with a
Paradise" ° smell more beautiful than that of any other garden
which I had ever seen. Now at that place on
the door of the temple was a chain of gold,' and
it was fastened over the door of the temple; and
everywhere on the outside of the temple were
locks, and no man was able to enter therein, and
the sweet odours of musk and [other] scents went
forth therefrom. Now the weig-ht of the chain''
was three hundred pounds according to the shekel
of Constantinople. And I marvelled thereat, and
I wished to see inside the temple, but I could not
arrive therein became I was unprepared to enter
into it. Then I prayed [p. 87] and entreated God
to open it for me, '
and
I drew nigh unto one of
the windows, and I commanded them to open one
of its doors that I might enter in with^ my soldiers'*
to look at the wonders which were therein. Now
' In the Syriac (p. loi) the temple is girt about with a
chain of gold which weighs three hundred pounds.
' Read Art^rtA^' = J Read ?"ftA '
* See Meusel, p. 785.