The journey to the city of the nine gates
R. McL. Wilson / Douglas M. Parrott (composite) · Public domain / scholarly composite. Reproduced for educational and religious commentary.
1Peter said to the apostles, We have toiled in the world, and now the Lord has commanded us to go up to a certain city. We do not know its name. So we set out, and the wind drove us. After a while we came to a small island.
2A man was sitting on the shore. He was wearing a linen cloth and a girdle, and he had a chest of pearls and stones. He was crying out, Pearls! Pearls! Pearls!
3I, Peter, took him to be a city merchant. I asked him, Do you have any place where I might rest? He said, Yes, my city is called the city of the nine gates. Whoever brings a single pearl will be able to enter. Then he gave me his name. He said, My name is Lithargoel — that is, "the lightweight, gleaming stone."
4I asked him, How may we obtain a pearl? He said, Travel the road that leads to the city. There are obstacles: lions, jackals, robbers. There is hunger and thirst. He who fasts every day, and overcomes these things, shall reach the city. There he will find me.
5We set out. We endured the lions and the jackals. We endured the robbers. We endured the hunger and the thirst. And we came to the gate of the city. There we found Lithargoel — but he had transformed.