The third time he heard the words:--

"Recite thou, in the name of thy Lord who created--
Created man from clots of blood." (Sura xcvi. 5.)

"When the voice had ceased to speak, telling how from minutest beginnings
man had been called into existence, and lifted up by understanding and
knowledge of the Lord, who is most beneficent, and who by the pen had
revealed that which man did not know, Muhammad woke up from his trance and
felt as if "a book had been written in his heart." He was much alarmed.
Tradition records that he went hastily to his wife and said--"O Khadija!
what has happened to me!" He lay down and she watched by him. When he
recovered from his paroxysm, he said "O Khadija! he of whom one would not
have believed (_i.e._, himself) has become either a soothsayer (kahin) or
mad." She replied, "God is my protection, O Ab-ul-kasim. He will surely not
let such a thing happen unto thee, for thou speakest the truth, dost not
return evil for evil, keepest faith, art of a good life and art kind to thy
relatives and friends, and neither art thou a talker abroad in the bazaars.
What has befallen thee? Hast thou seen aught terrible?" Muhammad replied
"Yes." And he told her what he had seen. Whereupon she answered and
said:--"Rejoice, O dear husband and be of good cheer. He in whose hands
stands Khadija's life, is my witness that thou wilt be the Prophet of this
people."[4] The next Sura, the 74th, was revealed at Mecca, after which
there seems to have been an intermission, called the Fatrah. It was during
this time that the Prophet gained some knowledge of the contents of the
Jewish and the Christian Scriptures.

Gabriel is believed to have been the medium of communication. This fact,
however, is only once stated in the Quran:--"Say, whoso is the enemy of
Gabriel--For he it is {4} who by God's leave hath caused the Quran to
descend on thy heart" (Sura ii. 91.) This Sura was revealed some years
after the Prophet's flight to Madina. The other references to the
revelation of the Quran are:--"Verily from the Lord of the worlds hath this
book come down; the Faithful Spirit (Ruh-ul-Amin) hath come down with it"
(Sura xxvi. 192.) "The Quran is no other than a revelation revealed to him,
one terrible in power (Shadid-ul-Qua) taught it him." (Sura liii. 5.) These
latter passages do not state clearly that Gabriel was the medium of
communication, but the belief that he was is almost, if not entirely,
universal, and the Commenta