Note 96 — PART I THE LEGEND OF THE NOCTURNAL JOURNEY AND ASCENSION OF MAHOMET COMPARED WITH THE DIVINE COMEDY

Tadhkira, 18, and Ibn Makhluf, I, 51-52. The examination to which the soul is subjected in each heaven in this legend may be compared with Dante’s catechism on the three theological virtues in the eighth heaven (Par. XXIV-XXVI). Noteworthy also is the close relation between each heaven and a corresponding virtue peculiar to the souls that succeed in ascending to it; this is what characterises the moral structure of Dante’s paradise. Cf. Rossi, I, 147.