7. Jesus and the dyer of cloth
The Arabic Infancy Narrative contains a story of the young Jesus who visits a craftsman who dyes cloth for a living. Either out of mischief or for reasons untold, Jesus took a bundle of several cloths and tossed them into a vat of indigo, long used to dye cloth blue. The craftsman, a man named Salem, remonstrated with Jesus, referring to him as the son of Mary, and telling him that the cloths in the bundle were to have all been dyed varying colors, rather than the blue which was the result of immersion in indigo. Jesus responded by withdrawing the cloths one at a time, each having been dyed a different color.
There is another tale in which Jesus is in the company of other children, presumably at play, and he orders them to surround him as if he were a king. In accordance with his wishes, the children spread their outer garments upon the ground for Jesus to sit upon, which he does in the manner of a sovereign. He is then crowned by his “subjects” who gather other children to appear before him as he sits upon his “throne”, in a scene which could appear as readily in a tale by Mark Twain as where it does appear, in the Arabic Infancy Narrative. In another tale, a group of boys hides from Jesus, who loses his patience and turns them into goats. Reprimanded by witnessing women, he turns the goats back into boys, and resumes playing with them.