ect of unrivaled magnificence mixed with barbarity, in which superb artistry would abut inexplicable prodigies of dismal tastelessness Here were orchards and groves, open plantings to rival those of fabled Lebanon, thanks to the prodigality with which Paul spent water On an escarpment near to Paul s Keep was established a fitting companion, Aba's Temple, built during the same twelve-year anm mirabites It had two-thousand meter sides and doors large enough to have admitted an entire cathedral from one erf the ancient religions, designed to reduce a pilgrim s soul to motedom Aha's Temple was itself one of the wonders of the universe While it certainly would have been a prodi gious feat to have built the entire palace in the twelve years it seems to ha\e taken, it would not have been impossible given the resources available to Paul Atreides However, a curiously persistent, if apocryphal, tradition among the Qizarate (cited in Yiam-el Dm) holds that the great citadel was completed in very much less than twelve years And tt came to pass when the tone was ripe for building that Muad'Dib surveyed the battle plain where the Sardaakar legions were obliterated, and he measured the battle plain with a rule "Here will I build my palace on the place of chaos and death," he declared 'And the name of the palace shall be Paul s Keep and tt shall be a great citadel a sietch above the sand to dwarf all other Impenal monuments And be side it will I build Aba's Temple, and pilgrim;; will come from all over the universe to worship there And I will build my city m seven weeks according to the plan of the ancient scriptures So will I be known to future ages as the Dune Messiah the Mahdi who will lead his people to Paradise And it was done as he had said The Qizarate believed that the "ancient scriptures'' referred to are to be found in the OC Bible, Prophets LXXXIX 24-26 Known 1o have been a favonte with Muad Dib, it is the text before all others which prophesies of the Messiah Unfortunately like other pro pheuc scriptural texts, it is far from easy to interpret It concerns the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the coming and cutting off of the Messiah Three groups of weeks are mentioned, one of seventy one of seven and /one of sixty-two The Qizarate interpreted seventy weeks as the time granted to the Fremen for completing their conquest of the Sardaukar, seven weeks for the building of the palace, and sixty-two weeks for the cut ting off of the Mahdi, but they do not regard the three periods of weeks as continuous The O C Bible Commentaries which suggests a substitution of years for the stated weeks, was disregarded Rather the Qizarate point to the significance of the seven week period as a symbolic re ^nactmcnt of the seven days of Genesis Supposing that we entertain this wild hypothesis, that Paul's Keep was built in only seven weeks what does it suggest to us concerning the forces at Paul's command^ There is another apocryphal tradition that should be mentioned here It is supposed that Muad Dib modeled his building not orfly on the story ot Jerusalem but also on that of Solomon s Temple A curious myth regard ing the construction of Paul s Keep tells that he employed giant sandworms to bore through the rocks to lay the foundations and that what we take for the work of cutteravs and even what we think to be plasmeld structures are really the production of sandxv orm teeth and sandworm furnaces The superstitious Fremen believed that there was a sort of emperor among the sandworms the Graridfa dier of the Desert the oldest and laree\t sandworm-Shai Hulud Muad Dib is supposed to have formed an alliance with this god among worms or rather he gained an ascendancy over it for the apocnphal Dune Gospels recast the encounter ot Jesus with ARRAKIS ASTRONOMY 18 ARRAKIS ASTRONOMY Shaitan in the wilderness of temptation in terms of a fantastic duel between Muad'Dib and Shai-Hulud in the deep desert It is supposed that Muad'Dib had a particular reason for wishing to employ Shai-Hulud and his subject sandworms in the construction of hts citadel, probably reflecting the obscure Fremen tradition that Solomon employed a worm called Sharrur to cut the stones for tits Temple Many are the myths of Solomon, however, and the fahar Book contradicts that of Shamir the Worm by tracing one concerning a shameer that was a magic pebble1 The main purport of the Temple*bui$dmg myth is simply mat Solomon employed multitudes of djmn m its construction.