p where no one knows."]

[87] {109} Al-Sirat, the bridge of breadth narrower than the thread of a
famished spider, and sharper than the edge of a sword, over which the
Mussulmans must _skate_ into Paradise, to which it is the only entrance;
but this is not the worst, the river beneath being hell itself, into
which, as may be expected, the unskilful and tender of foot contrive to
tumble with a "facilis descensus Averni," not very pleasing in prospect
to the next passenger. There is a shorter cut downwards for the Jews and
Christians.

[Byron is again indebted to _Vathek_, and S. Henley on _Vathek,_ p. 237,
for his information. The authority for the legend of the Bridge of
Paradise is not the Koran, but the Book of Mawakef, quoted by Edward
Pococke, in his Commentary (_Notae Miscellaneae_) on the _Porta Mosis_ of
Moses Maimonides (Oxford, 1654, p. 288)--

"Stretched across the back of Hell, it is narrower than a javelin,
sharper than the edge of a sword. But all must essay the passage,
believers as well as infidels, and it baffles the understanding to
imagine in what manner they keep their foothold."

The legend, or rather allegory, to which there would seem to be some
allusion in the words of Scripture, "Strait is the gate," etc., is of
Zoroastrian origin. Compare the _Zend-Avesta_, Yasna xix. 6 (_Sacred
Books of the East_, edited by F. Max Muller, 1887, xxxi. 261), "With
even threefold (safety and with speed) I will bring his soul over the
Bridge of Kinvat," etc.]

[88] {110} A vulgar error: the Koran allots at least a third of Paradise
to well-behaved women; but by far the greater number of Mussulmans
interpret the text their own way, and exclude their moieties from
heaven. Being enemies to Platonics, they cannot discern "any fitness of
things" in the souls of the other sex, conceiving them to be superseded
by the Houris.

[Sale, in his _Preliminary Discourse_ ("Chandos Classics," p. 80), in
dealing with this question, notes "that there are several passages in
the Koran which affirm that women, in the next life, will not only be
punished for their evil actions, but will also receive the rewards of
their good deeds, as well as the men, and that in this case God will
make no distinction of sexes." A single quotation will suffice: "God has
promised to believers, men and women, gardens beneath which rivers flow,
to dwell therein for aye; and goodly places in the garden of
Eden."--_The Qur'an_, translated by E. H. Pa