242 ZOROASTRIAN ELEMENTS IN THE QUR'AN

these "elements" were supposed to be good and not injurious to man. It was the Angel of Death, Vidhatus 1.

3. The Ascent of 'Azazil from Hell.

Azazil, according to the Muslim tradition, was the original name of Satan or Iblis. The name is Hebrew and occurs in the original text of Leviticus (xvi. 8, 10, 26). But the tale of his origin is not at all Jewish but almost if not quite Zoroastrian, as a comparison between the Muslim and the Zoroastrian legends proves.

In the Qisasu'l Anbiya (p. 9), we read: "God Most High created 'Azazil. 'Azazil worshipped God Most High for a thousand years in Sijjin 2. Then he came up to the earth. On each story 3 he worshipped God Most High for a thousand years until he came up upon the surface," the highest story, on which men dwell. God then gave him a pair of wings made of emerald, with which he mounted up to the first heaven. There he worshipped for a thousand years, and thus was enabled to reach the second heaven, and so on, worshipping for a thousand years at each stage
1 Vendidad, cap. v, lines 25 to 35.
2 Or the "Dungeon." This is the name of the seventh or lowest story in hell, and of the book kept there, in which the demons write the evil deeds of apostates and infidels (Surah LXXXIII., 7-10).
3 As has been already said, the earth, like hell and heaven, consists of seven stories.
AND TRADITIONS OF ISLAM. 243

of his ascent, and receiving from the angelic inhabitants of each heaven a special name. In the fifth heaven he was for the first time — according to this form of the legend — called 'Azazil. He thus ascended to the sixth and the seventh heaven, and then had performed so much adoration that he had not left in earth or heaven a single spot as large as the palm of a man's hand on which he had not prostrated himself in worship. Afterwards we are told that for the sin of refusing to worship Adam he was cast out of Paradise 1. The 'Araisu'l Majalis 2 tells us that, being then called Iblis, he remained for three thousand years at the gate of Paradise in the hope of being able to inflict some injury on Adam and Eve, since his heart was full of envy and ill-will towards them.

Now let us see what account the Zoroastrians give of what is evidently the same matter in the Bundahishnih, a Pahlavi work the name of which means "Creation." It must be noted that in Pahlavi the Evil Spirit is called Ahriman, which is derived from Anro Mainyus ("the destroying mind"), the name by which he is known in the Avesta.

In the first and second chapters of the Bundahishnih we read:—

"Ahriman was and is in darkness and after-
1 Qisasu'l Anbiya, p. 12: see above, p. 195.
2 'Araisu'l Majalis, p. 43.