This first heaven, he tells us, was all of pure silver; and the stars, each as big as a large mountain, hung from it by chains of gold; and that angels kept watch in these stars, to prevent the approach of evil spirits. Here he saw a decriped old man, our first father Adam it seems, who saluting him, gave God thanks for so great a son, and then recommended himself to his prayers. In the same heaven he also saw a multitude of angels in all manner of shapes, viz. of men, beasts, and birds; and among the last saw a cock, white as snow, of such a prodigious bigness, that his feet standing upon the first heaven, his head reached up to the second, which was at the distance of five hundred years journey according to our usual rate of travelling. Others say, his head reaches up through all the seven heavens, as far as the throne of God, which is above seven times higher; that his wings are adorned with carbuncles and pearls, and extended east and west, to a distance answerable to his height. This, says Mahomet, Gabriel told me was the chief angel of the cocks; and that every morning, God singing an hymn, this cock constantly joined him by crowing, which is so loud, that all (except men and fairies) hear it in heaven and in earth, and then all other cocks crow also. The Mahometans say, “That the voice of one reading in the Alcoran, of him who early every morning prays for pardon of his sins, and the voice of the cock, are three voices which God always hears with acceptance.”
From the first heaven, the impostor tells us, he ascended up to the second, at the distance of five hundred years journey above it, which he makes
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