'I doubt that,' said Rabbi Zimri, 'or why should he be called
king?'
'Was he of the house of David?' said Alroy.
'Without doubt,' said Rabbi Maimon; 'he was one of our greatest kings,
and conquered Julius Caesar.'[38]
'His kingdom was in the northernmost parts of Africa,' said Rabbi Zimri,
'and exists to this day, if we could but find it.'
'Ay, truly,' added Rabbi Maimon, 'the sceptre has never departed out of
Judah; and he rode always upon a white elephant.'
'Covered with cloth of gold,' added Rabbi Zimri. 'And he visited the
Tombs of the Kings?'[39] inquired Alroy.
'Without doubt,' said Rabbi Maimon. 'The whole account is in the
Talmud.'
'And no one can now find them?' 'No one,' replied Rabbi Zimri: 'but,
according to that learned doctor, Moses Hallevy, they are in a valley in
the mountains of Lebanon, which was sealed up by the Archangel Michael.'
'The illustrious Doctor Abarbanel, of Babylon,' said Rabbi Maimon,
'gives one hundred and twenty reasons in his commentary on the Gemara to
prove that they sunk under the earth at the taking of the Temple.'
'No one reasons like Abarbanel of Babylon,' said Rabbi Zimri.
'The great Rabbi Akiba, of Pundebita, has answered them all,' said Rabbi
Maimon, 'and holds that they were taken up to heaven.
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