| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | “Moses as Lamp-Bearer” | | By William Stigand |
| | | A CURIOUS fancy seized on Moses’ soul, | |
| To know if God, the Lord, slept like a man: | |
| So Allah sent an angel from on high, | |
| Who to the Holy Prophet this wise spake— | |
| “Take, Moses, in thy hands two burning lamps, | 5 |
| Then take thy stand and hold thyself upright, | |
| With both arms stretched full length, and keep them so; | |
| And watch then the whole night through and through.” | |
| Then Moses took the lamps and placed himself | |
| And held them fast on high a long, long time. | 10 |
| But at the last such weariness came on him, | |
| That the lamps fell to earth from out his hands. | |
| “Thus,” cried the angel, “thus, O simple man, | |
| Thus would the sun and moon and starry host, | |
| Thus would the joined fabric of the world | 15 |
| In waste and ruin fall, did Allah sleep!” | | | | |
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