Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): When the Children of Israel committed sins and turned away from the command of their Lord, Allah willed to set over them one who would humiliate them and kill them. So Allah the Exalted revealed to Irmiya (peace be upon him): "O Irmiya (peace be upon him)! What land is it that I chose from among the lands and planted in it the finest of trees, but it turned away and instead brought forth 'khurnub' (carob)?" Irmiya (peace be upon him) informed the scholars of the Children of Israel about this matter. They said to him: "Return to your Lord so that He may inform us about this parable." So Irmiya (peace be upon him) fasted for seven days, and Allah revealed to him: "O Irmiya (peace be upon him)! As for the land, it is Bayt al-Maqdis. And as for that which sprouted in it, they are the Children of Israel whom I settled there, and they committed sins, changed My religion, and exchanged My blessing for disbelief. I swear by Myself that I shall test them with a trial in which even the forbearing among the people will be bewildered and confused, and I shall set over them the worst of My servants in birth and the worst of them in food. I shall place this tyrant in authority over them. Their fighters will be killed by his hand, their women will be taken captive, their houses in which they take pride will be destroyed, and the stones (idols) with which they boast over the people will be cast into refuse for a hundred years." Irmiya (peace be upon him) informed the scholars of the Children of Israel [of this]. They said to him: "Return to your Lord and say to Him: 'What sin have the poor, the needy, and the weak committed?'" So Irmiya fasted another seven days. Then he ate something and no revelation came to him. Then he fasted seven days and Allah revealed to him: "O Irmiya (peace be upon him)! Desist from this, or I shall turn your face towards your back [and destroy you]." He said: Then Allah the Exalted revealed to him: "Say to them: [Your sin was that] you saw the evil but did not consider it evil." Irmiya (peace be upon him) said: "O my Lord! Tell me who he is [who will kill and humiliate this people], so that I may come to him and seek safety for myself and my family from him." [Allah] said: "Go to such-and-such a place and look for a boy whose bodily defect and flaw is the greatest of all, whose birth is the most ill-omened of all, who is the weakest of them in bodily constitution, and the worst of them in his food — that will be he." Irmiya (peace be upon him) went to that land. Suddenly he saw a young man in a caravanserai afflicted with bodily defect and flaw, cast upon refuse in the middle of the caravanserai. He had a mother who used to bring him dry bread and crumble it into a bowl for him and pour over it the milk of a female pig she owned. Then she would bring it near that young man and he would eat it. Irmiya (peace be upon him) said: "If the one whom Allah described is in the world, this is that boy." So he drew near him and said to him: "What is your name?" He said: "Bukht-Nassar." So he knew that this was him. He treated him until he was cured of that illness. Then he said to him: "Do you know me?" He said: "No, you are a righteous man." He said: "I am Irmiya (peace be upon him), the prophet of the Children of Israel. Allah has informed me that He will set you over the Children of Israel. You will kill their men and do such-and-such to them." He said: The boy at that moment was filled with pride and astonishment. Then Irmiya (peace be upon him) said: "Write me a document of safety." And he wrote him a handwritten document. He used to go by night to the mountain, gather firewood, bring it to the city, and sell it. And he called the people to war with the Children of Israel, and they accepted. The dwelling place of the Children of Israel was in Bayt al-Maqdis. Bukht-Nassar and those who had joined him went towards Bayt al-Maqdis, and many people gathered around him. When Irmiya (peace be upon him) learned of Bukht-Nassar's coming towards Bayt al-Maqdis, he rode his donkey to meet him, carrying the document of safety of Bukht-Nassar with him. Irmiya (peace be upon him), because of the multitude of soldiers and companions, could not reach him. So he placed the document upon a reed or stick and raised it up. [Bukht-Nassar] said: "Who are you?" He said: "I am Irmiya (peace be upon him), the very prophet who gave you the tidings that Allah would set you over the Children of Israel, and this is the document of safety you gave me." He said: "I have granted safety to you alone; but as for your family, I shall shoot an arrow from here towards Bayt al-Maqdis. If my arrow reaches Bayt al-Maqdis, they shall have no safety with me; but if it does not reach, they shall be safe." So he took up his bow and shot an arrow towards Bayt al-Maqdis. The wind carried the arrow with it until it planted it in Bayt al-Maqdis. He said: "They shall have no safety with me." When he beheld a mountain of dust in the middle of the city in the midst of which blood was boiling, and however much dust was poured over it, the blood still gushed out and boiled, he said: "What is this?" [Irmiya (peace be upon him)] said: "This is the blood of a prophet from Allah whom the kings of the Children of Israel killed, and now his blood boils, and however much dust we pour upon it, the blood still gushes out and continues to boil." Bukht-Nassar said: "I shall kill all the Children of Israel until this blood is calmed." That blood was the blood of Yahya son of Zakariyya (peace be upon him). In his time there was a tyrannical king who committed adultery with the women of the Children of Israel. [That king] one day passed by Yahya son of Zakariyya (peace be upon him). Yahya (peace be upon him) said to him: "O king! Fear Allah, for this is unlawful." One of the women with whom he was committing adultery, when [the king] had become drunk, said to him: "O king! Kill Yahya (peace be upon him)." So the king ordered that the head of Yahya (peace be upon him) be brought to him. They brought the head of Yahya (peace be upon him) in a basin, and the head was speaking to him and saying to him: "O you! Fear Allah, for this is unlawful." Then the blood boiled in the basin until it overflowed onto the ground, and it began to boil and did not calm. Between the killing of Yahya (peace be upon him) and the emergence of Bukht-Nassar there was a span of a hundred years. Bukht-Nassar kept killing them; he would enter the villages one by one and kill the men, women, youths, children, and all their animals, and still the blood boiled, until he had destroyed them all. Finally he said: "Has anyone remained in this land?" They said: "An old woman is still alive in such-and-such a place." So he sent someone there and they struck her neck over that blood, and the blood calmed. That old woman was the last one who had remained. Then Bukht-Nassar came to Babylon and built a city there and dug a well, and cast Daniyal (peace be upon him) into it together with a lioness. The lioness began to eat the clay of the well and Daniyal (peace be upon him) drank her milk, and he remained in this state for a time, until Allah revealed to the prophet who was in Bayt al-Maqdis: Take this food and drink to Daniyal (peace be upon him) and convey My greeting to him. He said: "O my Lord! Where is Daniyal (peace be upon him)?" He said: "In a well in Babylon, in such-and-such a place." So he went to him and looked into the well and said: "O Daniyal (peace be upon him)!" He said: "Yes, O unfamiliar voice!" He said: "Your Lord greets you and has sent you food and drink." And he lowered them down to him inside the well. Daniyal (peace be upon him) said: "Praise be to Allah, who does not disappoint the one who calls upon Him. Praise be to Allah, who is sufficient for whoever puts his trust in Him. Praise be to Allah, who does not forget the one who remembers Him. Praise be to Allah, who does not turn away disappointed the one who calls upon Him [from His door]. Praise be to Allah, who does not entrust to anyone else the one who relies upon Him. Praise be to Allah, who rewards good deeds with good. Praise be to Allah, who rewards patience with deliverance. Praise be to Allah, who removes hardships from us at the time of our misery. Praise be to Allah, who is our support when our hope is cut off from every side. Praise be to Allah, who is our hope when we despair of our own deeds." [At that same time] Bukht-Nassar saw in a dream that his head was of iron, his legs of copper, and his chest of gold. He summoned the dream-interpreters and said to them: "What did I see in the dream?" They said: "We do not know, but tell us what you saw." He said: "I have been paying you wages and stipends from such-and-such a time, and [yet] you do not know what I saw in the dream?!" So he ordered their execution, and [then] they were killed. Some of those who were with him said to him: "If anyone has knowledge in this matter, it is the one who is in the deep well, since the lioness did not attack him and eats clay and gives him milk." So he sent a group after Daniyal (peace be upon him) and said: "What did I see in the dream?" He said: "You saw that your head was of iron, your legs of copper, and your chest of gold." He said: "This is what I saw; what is its interpretation?" He said: "Your kingdom will pass away and you will be killed within the next three days; a man from Persia will kill you." Bukht-Nassar said: "There are seven cities all around me. At the gate of every city there is a guard, and I was not content with that; I placed a copper duck (a kind of alarm and warning) at the gate of every city, and no stranger enters but that [the alarm] cries out over him and informs everyone so that they may seize him." Daniyal (peace be upon him) said to him: "The matter is as I told you." So he sent out horsemen and said: "Whomever you see, kill him, and leave no one alive." Daniyal (peace be upon him) was seated with him (Bukht-Nassar). He said to Daniyal (peace be upon him): "During these three days you shall not leave my presence; if these three days pass and I am safe, I shall kill you." When [Bukht-Nassar] was awake at night on the third day, grief overtook him. So he went out and encountered a servant boy from Persia who used to serve his son, and [this was while] he did not know that this servant was from the people of Persia. So he gave him his sword and said: "O boy! Whomever you see, kill him, and even if you find me, kill me [too]." So the boy took his sword and struck Bukht-Nassar a blow with it and killed him. [After this event] Irmiya (peace be upon him) went out riding on his donkey, having with him a provision of figs and some fruit juice, and looked at the beasts of the land, the beasts of the sea, and the beasts of the air eating those carcasses. He thought to himself for an hour and then said: أَنَّى یُحْیِی هذِهِ اللَّهُ بَعْدَ مَوْتِها [How will Allah bring these to life after their death], while the beasts have also eaten their bodies? Then Allah caused him to die there where he was, and this is the saying of Allah the Blessed and Exalted: أَوْ کَالَّذِی مَرَّ عَلى قَرْیَةٍ وَ هِیَ خاوِیَةٌ عَلى عُرُوشِها قالَ أَنَّى یُحْیِی هذِهِ اللَّهُ بَعْدَ مَوْتِها فَأَماتَهُ اللَّهُ مِائَةَ عامٍ ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُ [Or the like of him who passed by a town, and it had fallen down upon its roofs; he said: How will Allah give it life after its death? So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him to life] — meaning He brought him back to life. When Allah had mercy on the Children of Israel and destroyed Bukht-Nassar, He restored the Children of Israel again to the world; [in this manner: that] when Allah had set Bukht-Nassar over the Children of Israel [and he was killing them all], Uzayr (peace be upon him) fled and entered a spring and disappeared in it [and thus survived and, after the death of Bukht-Nassar, returned among the Children of Israel and became the cause of the renewed life of the Children of Israel]. [As for the story of Irmiya (peace be upon him):] Irmiya (peace be upon him) was dead for a hundred years; then Allah the Exalted brought him back to life, and the first thing He revived in him was his eyes, like the membrane of an egg. So he looked, and Allah revealed to him: "How long has it been?" He said: "A day." Then he looked at the sun which had risen high and said: "Or perhaps a part of a day." Allah the Exalted said: بَلْ لَبِثْتَ مِائَةَ عامٍ فَانْظُرْ إِلى طَعامِکَ وَ شَرابِکَ لَمْ یَتَسَنَّهْ [Nay! you have tarried a hundred years; then look at your food and drink — years have not passed over it] — meaning it has not changed: وَ انْظُرْ إِلى حِمارِکَ وَ لِنَجْعَلَکَ آیَةً لِلنَّاسِ وَ انْظُرْ إِلَى الْعِظامِ کَیْفَ نُنْشِزُها ثُمَّ نَکْسُوها لَحْماً [and look at your ass; and that We may make you a sign to men, and look at the bones, how We set them together, then clothe them with flesh]. And he looked at the decayed, cracked bones, how they came towards him and how the flesh that the beasts had eaten was being gathered from here and there and joined to the bones and clung to them, until he stood up and his donkey too stood up; [then Irmiya (peace be upon him)] said: أَعْلَمُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلى کُلِّ شَیْءٍ قَدِیرٌ [I know that Allah has power over all things].