Reading Diary B: Folklore of the Holy Land

Folklore of the Holy Land

This portion of the reading began with the story of the death of Adam and the importance of the tree that his son planted at his head.  The angel could not give them a fruit from the tree of life but he was able to get remnants of the tree. Falling into depression, an angel saved him right in time and told him to go and water the tree at the head of Adam’s grave to save mankind. As he passed someone on the side of the road that needed help, Lot offered him some of the water that he was supposed to water the tree with.  It ended up being the Devil and he emptied the jar so no water was left to water the tree. Satan keeps tricking him and pouring out the water but being the nice person Lot is, it was hard for him to say no when he sees someone thirsty on the side of the road.  After Lot died, the stump of the tree was thrown in the middle of nowhere and set up as a bridge.  Time went on but one day a Queen knew this bridge was something special so instead of crossing it like anyone else, she knelt down and worshipped the bridge.  This was preserved until it was used again to make the cross that Christ died on. 

            The next story was told about David.  He split his time in thirds and spent one day worshipping Allah and studying the scripture, the second day was devoted to the problems in the state, and the third day was spent handling the duties of life.  On his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he locked himself in a tower and did not want to be disturbed. Up in the tower, he found an amazing bird full of wings that looks like jewels.  After that, two angels in the form of humans went to the tower that David was locked in. They claimed he was evil and he cried.  A prophet was sent to him and explained that he needed to confess what he had done wrong and the reasons that made him a sinner and he would be forgiven. 

            A saint in Palestine is said to discover the fountain of youth. Imagine how popular that would be these days.  Many others looked for this fountain of youth.  Alexander, who had two horns, washed their dead fish in this stream.  The fish came to life and escaped but this did not dawn on the explorers that this was a special pool of water.  They missed out.  They continued on their adventure because they could not see what was right in front of them.  They missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime and continued to a city in which he named after himself called Alexandria.  On the other hand, El Khudr took the time to see his surroundings and found the fountain and drank the water it held.  He, now, never dies and has many names that people know him as. Prayers to him are said to be effective.  

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