Note 303 — PART II THE DIVINE COMEDY COMPARED WITH OTHER MOSLEM LEGENDS ON THE AFTER-LIFE
Harold Sunderland translation
Neither Labitte nor D’Ancona found any trace of such a scene in Christian or classical legend. Ozanam (p. 457) merely quotes the Vision of the Shepherd of Hermes, which tells how a maiden, whom the shepherd had once wished to marry, appears to him in a dream as descending from heaven and calling upon him to serve God. According to Batiffol (p. 62), however, this tale was unknown in Europe before the sixteenth century.