In the morning Pharaoh told his strange dream to
his counsellors, who were greatly terrified, and Bi'lam, the son of
Beor, the magician, said: "This dream, O King, forebodes great
affliction, which one of the children of Israel will bring upon Egypt."
The king asked the soothsayer whether this threatened evil might not be
avoided. "There is but one way of averting the calamity--cause every
male child of Hebrew parents to be slain at birth." Pharaoh approved of
this advice, and issued an edict accordingly. The Egyptian monarch's
kind-hearted daughter (whose name, by the way, was Bathia), who rescued
the infant Moses from the common fate of the Hebrew male children, was a
leper, and consequently was not permitted to use the warm baths. But no
sooner had she stretched forth her hand to the crying infant than she
was healed of her leprosy, and, moreover, afterwards admitted bodily
into Paradise.[71]
[71] Muslims say that Pharaoh's seven daughters were all
lepers, and that Bathia's sisters, as well as herself,
were cured through her saving the infant Moses.
According to the Hebrew traditionists, nine human beings
entered Paradise without having tasted of death, viz.:
Enoch; Messiah; Elias; Eliezer, the servant of Abraham;
the servant of the king of Kush; Hiram, king of Tyre;
Jaabez, the son of the Prince, and the Rabbi, Juda;
Serach, the daughter of Asher; and Bathia, the daughter
of Pharaoh.
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