gave him a Bride or Virgin Mother to represent the Female Principle.

Moreover, just as the disc of the Sun, or the star-like form which the
ancients often used to signify the radiate or impregnating Sun,
naturally came to be recognised as the symbol of the Male Principle, so
the Crescent, as signifying the increasing Moon and the lesser of the
two great lights of heaven, in like manner came to be adopted as the
natural symbol of the Female Principle.

In this connection it will not be amiss to draw attention to the symbol
of the conquerors of the city founded by Constantine. For though
misleadingly called "the Crescent," that symbol is, as the reader
cannot very well fail to be aware, not a mere crescent; but one which
has within its horns what we consider to be a star-like form and
therefore call a star. And though it is possible that it was not
knowingly adopted as such by the Moslems, this dual symbol was a
combination of the ancient symbols of the Male and Female Principles.

An erroneous account of the origin of this symbol as a Moslem symbol is
given in all our works of reference which deal with the matter, as if
their compilers copied one from another without troubling to consider
the evidence for themselves.

The incorrect but widely accepted explanation in question, is to the
effect that the so-called _star_ and crescent had its origin as a
Moslem symbol in the capture of Byzantium or Constantinople by the
Turks in A.C. 1453; our works of reference stating that it was then
adopted by Mahomet II., as the symbol of the famous city he had taken
from the Christians.