Chapter VII.
Three boys, having entered the furnace with empty stomachs, brought forth a cooling of the flames; and even the lions were taught by Daniel to fast.
There are certain creatures in nature, which are called amiantum, that are not easily consumed by fire. When placed in a fire, they ignite and immediately, when removed from the flame, shine brightly as if infused with water. The bodies of the Hebrew children, when transformed into amiantum through fasting, borrowed the power of fire not to the detriment of themselves, but for their own benefit. For when the fires of the furnace raged, spreading the flames around to a distance of over forty cubits, consuming many of the Chaldeans who supplied fuel to the fires with naphtha, pitch, tow, and kindling, the Hebrew children entered through fasting. The intense heat of the flames dissipated, and in the middle of the furnace they began to be moistened by a refreshing breath of dew. Not a single hair on their heads was burned, for fasting had also nourished their hair.
20. Daniel, a man of longings, also instructed the lions to fast for three weeks. He was thrown into the lake, hardened in the rigidity of abstinence, and his body was made firm and did not yield to injury. Such were the restraints of his fasting, that no place could be found for the bites of wild beasts on his body. The mouths of the lions were closed, which the sanctity of prophetic abstinence held in check, so that those animals, bound by certain chains, could not open them.
21. Therefore, fasting extinguished the power of fire, fasting closed the mouths of lions, fasting solidified the flow of the sea, fasting turned the rock into fountains of water, by the power of fasting, it restrained its own nature and calmed the waves, and the rock overflowed with water.