Darius summoned Daniel to test his wisdom and found him seven times wiser than any report had claimed. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Darius appointed Daniel as his personal counselor, just as the previous king had done. But one day the king tried to convert Daniel to his own religion.
The idol Bel was the great god of Babylon, and his appetite was legendary. Every day the priests laid out one bullock, ten rams, ten sheep, one hundred doves, seventy loaves of bread, and ten barrels of wine on his table. By morning, it was all gone. "Would that thou didst believe in the glory of our god Bel," the king told Daniel, "who consumes what is laid upon this table."
Daniel was unimpressed. "Let not the heart of the king be deceived," he replied. "There is no breath in it. It is simply the work of the craftsman. It is the priests of Bel who eat the contents of this table." He offered to prove it, and the king agreed.
Daniel had the temple locked and sealed with only one entrance open. Then the king ordered ashes scattered across the floor of the temple while the priests were kept in ignorance. The doors were sealed with the king's ring and Daniel's ring, and they retired for the night.
The next morning, the seals were untouched. When they opened the doors, the table was bare, every morsel consumed. Darius fell prostrate before Bel in awe. But Daniel pointed to the floor. There in the ashes were the footprints of men, women, and children. The seventy priests of Bel were hauled before the king, and under threat of death, they revealed their secret entrances: hidden passages through which they crept in every night to feast on the god's offerings.