The Sword of the Templars

Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O’Kellyn?

Where may the grave of that good man be?-

By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,

Under the twigs of a young birch tree!

The oak that in summer was sweet to hear,

And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year,

And whistled and roared in the winter alone,

Is gone,-and the birch in its stead is grown.-

The Knight’s bones are dust,

And his good sword rust;-

His soul is with the saints, I trust.

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Knight’s Tomb”

Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.

Here lies Arthur, the Once and Future King.

- Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur

Glory to God Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth all things.

- The Koran, The Night Journey, Chapter 17, Verse 1, in which the Prophet is shown the great wonders in the ruins of Solomon’s Temple

And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.

- Zephaniah 2:13 The Holy Bible, King James Version