Guyon decides to continue his quest for the Bower of Bliss. While
passing through a dense thicket, his attention is attracted by a clank
of metal, and peering through the branches he descries an old,
dirt-encrusted man, surrounded by mounds of precious stones and coins,
which keep dropping through his fingers. This creature is Mammon,--God
of Wealth,--who is so busy counting his treasures that at first he
pays no heed to Sir Guyon. When questioned, however, he boasts he is
more powerful than any potentate in the world, and tries to entice Sir
Guyon to enter into his service by promising him much gold. For a
moment Sir Guyon wavers, but finally decides not to accept the offer
until he has ascertained whether Mammon's riches have been honestly
gained. To show whence he draws them, the money-god now conveys Sir
Guyon to the bowels of the earth, and there lets him view his minions
mining gold, silver, and precious stones, and thus constantly
increasing his hoard. But, although sorely tempted, Sir Guyon
perceives that Mammon's workmen are oppressed by Care and driven by
Force and Fraud, who keep them constantly at work and never allow
Sleep to approach them. This discovery makes him decide to have
nothing to do with Mammon's treasures, although he is led into a hall
where hosts of people are paying homage to the money king's daughter,
who, he is told, will be his bride if he will only accept her father's
offers. Coldly rejoining that his troth is already plighted, Sir Guyon
refuses, only to emerge from this hall into a garden, through whose
branches he catches fleeting glimpses of the underworld. In one of its
rivers he even beholds Tantalus, undergoing torments from hunger and
thirst, in punishment for sins committed while on earth.

After being subjected for three days to all the temptations of the
underworld, Sir Guyon is led back to the light of day, where
Mammon--who bitterly terms him a fool--abandons him.