43 myths · Page 1 of 2
Each story names the sources it was written from.
God did not scoop a single handful of clay. Each part of Adam's body came from a different corner of the universe, and each part gave him a different sense.
Pharaoh's throne sat atop seventy steps. A foreign prince could climb thirty-one, a petitioner three. Joseph came from the cell and climbed all seventy.
The beggar said he was king. They set a bowl of grits before him. In Jerusalem a man with hidden feet still sat on Solomon's throne.
Before he built anything, Nimrod rode out to a son of Noah to ask how a man takes the whole earth. He was told four kingdoms were coming, none of them his.
Solomon's legendary throne was not just a seat of power. It moved, tested every visitor, and punished rulers who lied before it.
In Adam's vision of the generations, one soul had no years beside its name. Adam had a thousand of his own. He died at nine hundred and thirty.
The drawing kept collapsing. Nothing held until God made repentance and set it down beside the Throne, before there was any light to see it by.
No king who came after Solomon could replicate his throne. The problem was not the gold or the ivory. The throne was built to humble whoever sat on it.
Zoharariel approaches the throne on his knees, shaking, while other angels tremble and the measure of his garment exceeds all bounds.
The Accuser asked whose light waited under the Throne. God drew Ephraim forward. The Accuser fell on his face before a king who had no world yet.
Every dawn a new host of angels is created from fire, sings one song before God, and is gone before the morning has fully opened.
Seraphim cover their faces before the throne. Moses asked to see the glory itself. The court of angels stood ready to kill him.
Anaphiel swung the last gate. Five hundred and twelve eyes turned. The mystic's knees went first, then his back hit the floor.
Targum Jonathan counts sixty-four faces and 256 wings on the throne. Ezekiel watches the glory move out through the east gate and waits for it to return.
Thirty-three steps of gold, lions and eagles that moved, and six steps of justice that tested whether a king deserved to sit and judge at all.
Solomon's golden throne was a machine of restrained beasts, and a herald cried a forbidden law at every step he climbed toward judgment.
Before the chariot, Ishmael sought the hymns that open palaces, cascading praise to Totrosi'ai until secrets bowed.
The throne's measures drown the mind in myriads of parasangs. Then a quieter voice says Israel's raw sigh is sweet and already heard.
Bigthan and Teresh mixed the poison in Tarsian, sure the Jew at the door would hear only noise. Mordecai knew seventy languages.
Nebuchadnezzar climbs Solomon's golden steps and a lion paw shatters his thigh. Only Cyrus sits whole on the seat that once judged beasts.
Wine made Solomon merry, and he summoned creation to dance. Beasts came. Birds came. One wild bird did not, and the king ordered it killed.
At the first heavenly palace, princes seize from right and left. Rabbi Ishmael lifts two seals, and Surya laughs already over a wicked man's end.
The report of Amalek's fall reached two houses. One hardened. Jethro packed in Midian and walked toward the camp that had just been ambushed.
For three years the king of Israel scraped pots in Ammon. Naama opened a fish for supper. A ring fell into her palm, cold from the sea.
Moses sang of holy myriads and the camp looked up. Fire ranks without number filled the sky. None of them outshone the One who led them.
Builders shaped foundation stones for a house still incomplete. Then the throne of glory hung between altar and inner room. Faces hit the floor.
The Masters of the Mishnah cried out as if he had hurled rocks. No stone left his hand. The words finished their rows and the Throne shook.
The magicians who failed to read the king's dream watched a prisoner take their place at court. Then they began carrying stories to Pharaoh.
The seat under David was fire forty parasangs high. He sat and sang until Metatron answered, and the fire did not eat him.
Haman pressed the king's ring into hot wax and sent riders out with a date for killing every Jew. God had not said it. The plot came back on his own head.
