Who has ever painted for himself such an image,

and filled it with wonder for it to be a marvel in the world?

The image is glorious and it proclaims marvelous things about its Creator:

How wise, how omnipotent, and how powerful He is!

55 Wisdom painted a great image full of wonder,

brought it in and set it between the worlds so that they could gaze upon it.

She loaded it up with adornments that all creatures might be seen in it,

but it forgot its nature and handed itself over to death that it may see its own fall.

Beauty fell down to the dust and became an object of shame;

60 because it transgressed the command of its Lord, it was handed over to death.

All creation is a great city which the Just One built,

He established for Himself therein a rational icon and made him its lord.

He painted an image for Himself and set it in the great city that He built,

but the evil one was envious of the beauty of the image of the Great King.

65 He sent a serpent and it bit that image by the deceit that it wrought,

from that bile its adornments fell off into the dust of the earth.

Sin ensnared it and handed it over to death in order to plunder it,

it broke it, cast it down, perverted it, trampled on it and it became dust.

At the demise [of that image] those elements that had been bound were dissolved,

70 and with them those rational senses that had been bound were destroyed.

The four equal things fell apart and each was separated from its companion,

and destroyed the five along with them, and their composition came to an end.

The body was yoked to the four and it ran along like a chariot,

and the five senses stood upon it like charioteers.

75 Then death came and unhitched the yokes and the guides,

and every course of that great image fell and it came to its end.

It separated the cold from the hot and put an end to their operations,

as well as the moist from the dry and their functions came to an end.

And as soon as it cut off these two, one from the other,

80 the five perished and the nine came to an end as if they had never been.

Sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell all perished,

for these five had moved together equally with the four.

Along with the elements that it loosed from [their] ways,

those senses also ceased, no longer to move according to their functions.

85 For no longer would it see, hear, or touch,

nor would it taste or smell, for each had been dispersed.

For death scattered it and put it into the corners of a grave,

and all the beauties that had been assembled were destroyed by it.

Out of the elements it had been constituted and stood like a pillar,

90 by that hidden power that had given it its nature from nothing.

Because it had eaten from the tree and despised the commandment,

it caused its own dissolution in death and its activity came to an end.

And the elements that He had gathered up, it scattered,

and the senses that He had ordered, it destroyed, trampled and brought to an end.

95 And those comely, desirable beauties came to an end and were destroyed,

and all the beautiful adornments fell into destruction.

It had no speech, no sound, not even a whisper

for death had closed its mouth in silence and its speech ceased.

It fell from the height and was thrust down as a companion of death,

100 in its nakedness it went down to Sheol like a feeble one.

On the thread of the soul like a necklace of pearls,

it had been entirely strung and arrayed with pleasing limbs;

all the various types of beauty were intermingled in it,

and it had become one great beauty with no bounds.

105 The dragon came, stung the thread of life and it fell off,

and behold that lovely necklace burst and rolled into the bowels of Sheol.

Precious gems and costly pearls

had been embroidered on it and it had been a great crown of light.

The viper hissed and in its rebellion cast away the crown;

110 its gems were scattered and its beauty dispersed into the grave.

In his great beauty Adam was even more glorious than a crown,

and among creatures there was no other beauty comparable to his.

His Jeweler set springs of light atop his crown,

so as if from on high he might gaze upon the creatures that surrounded him.

115 Beneath him He fashioned feet for racing like a chariot,

so that with them he might travel wherever he wished to go.

On his flanks He fashioned hands and on them ten fingers,

that with them he might lay hold of the sea, the dry land and the whole world.

He fashioned a brain to be a home for his mind,

120 so that it might reside in a lofty dwelling like a god.

He made for him a palate that he might be able to discriminate tastes,

and He set taste therein that he might distinguish sweet from bitter.

He opened nostrils for him so that they might be a path for odors

by which he might discern a putrid smell from a sweet one.

125 He bore out a passage for hearing and surrounded it with the form of a seashell,

that sounds might circulate and enter in gently through it.

In his breast is the heart wherein all his thoughts are gathered,

so that as if from a great storehouse it may put forth all its treasures.

Speech is through his mouth and with his lips the distinction of sounds,

130 eyebrows for expressions, and He adorned the pupils with eyelashes.

In one member He placed bitterness and anger like a fire,

by which he might be inflamed against wickedness whenever it occurred.

In another He placed them to be the receptacle for sadness,

that he might feel remorse for evils when they were committed.

135 To yet another He granted that it should serve for cheerfulness,

so that when good is done his countenance might be glad and joyful.

Various things for each limb did the Wise One of the ages 

form and arrange on that beautiful image when He fashioned it.

Out of nothing the Creator made a very great thing,

140 that by its own wisdom it might be lord of everything.

But the serpent came and spewed its bile upon that beautiful thing,

and turned it into putrid and fetid filth in the darkness.

This comeliness fell into the pit that it might be tormented therein,

and every quality of its beauty was trampled and destroyed in it.

145 Because he had been exalted he was brought low and became a mockery;

he fell from his station, embraced his clay and took hold of his lowliness.

His station had been high! Would that he had held fast to his high station!

But he did not remain [there]; his chasm was deep and full of terrors.

His creation was great, exalted, comely and full of beauties,

150 for he was constituted from nothing and had been made something wondrous.

The hidden signal of the Maker had gathered up some clay,

took it and formed mud, then He mixed it and united it with air.

He tempered it with fire and gave it a life-giving spirit,

and it became an image that is dry and moist, hot and cold.

155 He mixed in the elements as if they were colors and blended them in,

and He made from them a comely form full of beauty.

From choice pigments that He had selected He painted for Himself an image,

and made it a bridegroom in this great bridal chamber that He had framed.

He adorned Eve as a virgin bride and gave her to Adam,

160 and into her dowry He put the sea, the dry land, and the air.

All the worlds gathered for the great marriage feast that He had prepared,

the bridal couple were radiant in their crowns and their raiment.

He covered them in magnificent light and in elegant radiance,

and He left them among the trees to enjoy their delights.

165 He gave them every tree and their fruits as a wedding present,

and the garden exulted in the bride and bridegroom for they were beloved.

The tree of life was in the great bridal chamber of Eden;

it was concealed, to be for that luminous couple when they were perfected.

But that tree of knowledge which was full of death,

170 stood out in the open beside it like something beautiful. 

And so that they would know who was the Lord who had exalted them,

He set down a law that they should not eat from that tree.

The entire garden He gave to these new children He had established, 

only one single tree did He give in order to test them.

175 The malicious one entered and cast divisions into that wedding feast,

he stole away the bride, whispered, lied, beguiled and deceived her.

A[s a] hawk among innocent and glorious doves he entered and stood,

and made them fly off from that great nest of Eden.

Envy came upon those beautiful ones and it troubled them,

180 the deceit of the serpent infatuated, corrupted and tripped them up.

They went ahead rashly and ate from the tree that was full of death,

disgrace and dishonor sprang immediately upon them.

Their adornments and their crowns were reduced to naught,

their beauty was extinguished and their joyful sounds came to an end.

185 The serpent snatched away the garment of light in which they were clothed,

and in great terror, those thieves stood there naked.

The fruit of desire stripped them and brought shame upon them,

it destroyed and ruined all the beauty in which they had been arrayed. 

The image that the Divinity had painted went down to destruction,

190 then death trampled it down and thrust it into Sheol.

Honor passed away from the honored one and disgrace enveloped him,

that great one fell from his greatness and took hold of lowliness.