“He is mad, my lord. But he is affectionate to me and to his mother, providing for us in our old age and expending the sweat of his brow so as to fulfill our needs. Have compassion on him in your compassion for us, and overlook his madness out of your respect for our parental love.”

They released Yuhanna, and his insanity became notorious in those parts, so that youths mocked his words when they spoke of him and young girls looked at him with pitying eyes, saying, “Heaven has a strange way with human beings, for it gave this young man both a handsome face and a disturbed mind.” They compared the gentle rays of his eyes with the darkness of his ailing soul.

Among those meadows and knolls adorned with grasses and flowers, Yuhanna sat near his grazing calves, who had escaped the toils of humans through this fine pasture. Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked out at the villages and farms scattered over the slopes of the valley. He repeated these words over and over, with deep sighs: “You are many, and I am alone, so say what you like about me and do whatever you want with me. For the wolves devour the ewe in the dark of night, but the stains of her blood remain on the pebbles of the valley till the dawn arrives and the sun rises.”

1

The City of the Sun is Baalbek, that is, the City of Baal, the god of the sun. The ancients called it the City of the Sun or Heliopolis because it was built for the worship of this deity, and historians are agreed that it was the most beautiful city in Syria. As for the ruins that survive down to our day, most of them were built by the Romans after they had conquered Syria.

2

Astarte was a great goddess among the ancient Phoenicians, who worshipped her in Tyre and Sidon, in Jubayl and Baalbek. According to them, among her attributes are “igniter of the flame of life and guardian of youth.” Greece borrowed her worship from the Phoenicians, calling her Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and the Romans called her Venus.

3

The Arabs of the pre-Islamic Age of Ignorance say that when a female genie falls in love with a young human she prevents him from marrying. If he should manage to do so, she ensorcels his bride or causes her to die, and these poetic beliefs still survive among some villages in Lebanon.

4

The Prophet of Islam, may peace be upon him, said: “You were dead and He brought you back to life, then He will cause you to die and revive you, then ye shall return unto him.” The Buddha in India said: “Yesterday we were in this life and we have now come again, and we shall return until we become perfect like the gods.”