In the dim, pregnant dawn of religions, by the transfusing power of a
great idea, seized upon and made living by a single personality, the
world of imagination mingles with the world of fact as we perceive it.
The real is felt to be merely the frail shell of forces more powerful and
permanent. Legend and myth crowd in upon actual life as imperfect
vehicles for the compelling demand made by that new idea for expression.
Moreover, personality, that subtle essence, exercises a kind of
centripetal force, attracting not only the devotion but the imaginations
of those who come within its influence.

Mahomet, together with all the men of action in history, possessed an
energy of will so vast as to bring forth the creative faculties of his
adherents, and the legends that cluster round him have a special
significance as the measure of his personality and influence. The
story, for instance, of his midnight journey into the seven heavens
is the symbol of an intense spiritual experience that, following the
mental temper of the age in which he lived, had to be translated into
the concrete. All the affirmations as to his intercourse with Djinn,
his inspiration by the angel Gabriel, are inherent factors in the
manifestation of his ceaseless mental activity. His marvellous birth and
the myths of his childhood are the sum of his followers' devotion, and
reveal their reverence translated into terms of the imagination.
Character was the mysterious force that his co-religionists tried
unconsciously to portray in all those legends relative to his life at
Medina, his ruthlessness and cruelty finding a place no less than his
humility, and steadfastness under discouragement.

But beneath the weight of the marvellous the real man is almost buried.
He has stood for so long with the mists of obscure imaginings about him