Before Adam named the animals, God brought them before the angels and challenged them to do it first. They could not. Adam named every creature instantly. God turned to the angels and said, "Were you not asking, 'What is man, that You should remember him?' Now his wisdom is greater than yours!" According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by undefined Gaster in 1899, this was the moment the angels began to envy humanity.
Samael, the angel of death, descended to find a creature cunning enough to corrupt Adam. He chose the serpent. The serpent approached Eve and challenged her about the forbidden tree. When Eve said they would die if they touched it, the serpent laughed. "God is jealous," he said. "If you eat, your eyes will be opened, and you will know how to create the world just as He does." The serpent stood on his feet, shook the tree, and fruit fell to the ground. The tree itself cried out: "Wicked one, do not touch me!"
When Eve saw the serpent touch the tree and survive, she ate the fruit. Instantly she saw the angel of death with a drawn sword. Her reasoning was brutal: if she alone would die, God would give Adam another wife. Better they die together. She gave Adam the fruit. He ate, saw the same drawn sword, and was stricken with grief.
But Eve did not stop with Adam. She fed the forbidden fruit to every creature on earth—beasts, animals, and birds. All ate. All became subject to death. All except one. A bird called Milham refused. "Woe unto you," the bird told Eve. "You have brought death upon yourself, your husband, and all creatures. I alone will not eat." God rewarded the bird with eternal life. Every thousand years, the Milham shrinks to the size of a chick, loses its feathers, and returns to its egg—and God sends two angels to restore it anew.