The Rosetta Key

“And so the chain is even longer. Baphomet is the Father of Wisdom, is Solomon, is Sophia . . . but could he also not be thought, Thoth, your original god of all learning?” I was stunned. Had the Knights Templar, the reputed ancestors of my own fraternal Masonic lodges, know of this ancient Egyptian deity? Had they even worshipped it? Was all this nonsense connected, in ways that stretched from Masons to Templars, and from Templars back through Greeks, Romans, Jews, to ancient Egypt? Was there a secret history that wound through all the world’s time, paralleling the commonly known one?

“And how did Solomon become so wise?” Jericho said slowly. “If this book were real, and the king had it in his possession. . . .”

“There were dark rumors Solomon had the power to summon demons,” Miriam said. “And so the stories loop on themselves—that pious men sought only knowledge, or that the knowledge itself was t h e

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corrupting, leading to riches and evil. Is knowledge good or bad?

Look at the story of the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Back and forth the legends and arguments go.” I was dazed with the possibilities. “You think the Knights Templar already found this book?”

“If they did they may have lost it in the purge that followed,” Farhi said. “Your particular Grail may be nothing but ashes, or in other hands. Yet no power followed the Templars. No group of knights ever equaled them, and no fraternity ever again became so widespread over Europe. And when Jacques de Molay, the last grand master, was burned at the stake for refusing to betray Templar secrets, he levied a terrible curse by promising that the king of France and the pope would follow him to the grave within a year. Both did so. So was the book found to begin with? Was it lost? Or was it . . .”

“Re-hidden,” Miriam said.

“In the Temple Mount!” I cried.

“Possibly, but in places so deep it cannot be easily found again.

Moreover, when Saladin recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders, the possibility of penetrating the mount seemed lost. Even now, the Muslims guard it zealously. No doubt they’ve heard some of the stories we have. Yet they allow no exploration. These secrets could shake all religions to their foundations, and Islam is an enemy of witchcraft.”

“You mean we can’t get in there?”

“If we tried and were found, we’d be executed. It is sacred ground.

Excavations in the past have caused riots. It would be as if we tried to excavate St. Peter’s.”

“Then why are we talking?”

They glanced at each other in mutual understanding.

“Ah. So we must not be found.”

“Exactly,” Jericho said. “Farhi has suggested a possible path.”

“Why hasn’t he taken this path himself?”

“Because it is wet, filthy, dangerous, confined, and probably futile,” Farhi said cheerfully. “We were, after all, dealing only with vague historical legend until you come with claims that something 7 0

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extraordinary really existed in ancient Egypt, and was perhaps carried here. Do I believe it? No. You may be an entertaining liar, or a credulous fool. But do I disbelieve, when its existence may have represented great power to my people? I can’t afford to.”

“So you will lead us?”

“As well as a disfigured bookkeeper can.”

“For a share of the treasure, I presume.”

“For truth and knowledge, as Thoth would be content with.”

“Which Miriam said could be used for good or evil.”

“The same could be said about money, my friend.” Well, anytime a stranger announces altruism, and calls me friend, I wonder what pocket he’s reaching into. But in my own months of searching I hadn’t found a clue, had I? Maybe he and I could use each other. “Where do we start?”

“Between the Dome of the Rock and the El-Aqsa Mosque is the Fountain of El-Kas,” Farhi said crisply. “It draws its water from ancient rain cisterns deep within the Temple Mount. Those cisterns are connected by tunnels, to feed each other. Some writers have speculated they are part of a vein of passages that may extend even under the holy rock Kubbet es-Sakhra itself, where Abraham offered his sacrifice to God: the foundation stone of the world. Moreover, these cisterns must also be connected to springs, not just rainwater. Accordingly, a decade ago I was asked by Djezzar to search the ancient records for underground passageways into Temple Mount. I told him I found none.”

“You lied?”

“It was a costly admission of failure. I was mutilated as punishment.

But the reason is that I did find old records, fragmentary accounts, suggesting a secret route to powers so great that a man such as Djezzar must never get them. The Spring of Gihon that feeds the Pool of Siloam, outside the city walls, may offer a way. If so, the Muslims would never see us.”

“The cisterns,” said Miriam, “might lead to the deepest places where the Jews may have hid the ark, the book, and other treasures.”

“Until, perhaps, they were uncovered by the Knights Templar,” t h e

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