noon
Auramazda , the All-Wise , would provide . Zoroaster sat by the spring and watched the crystal waters sparkle in the brief hour of sunshine at noonday , and turn dark and deep again when the light was gone . He moved not through the long hours of day , sitting as he had sat in that place now for three years neither scorched by the short hours of sunlight , nor chilled by winter 's frost and snow . The wild long-haired sheep of the mountain came down to drink at noon , and timidly gazed with their stupid eyes at the immovable figure ; and at evening the long-bodied , fierce-eyed wolves would steal stealthily among the rocks and come and snuff the ground about his feet , presently raising their pointed heads with a long howl of fear , and galloping away through the dusk in terror , as though at something unearthly . And when at last the night was come , Zoroaster arose and went to the spot where the rocks , overhanging together , left a space through which one might enter ; and the white-haired man gave one long look at the stars overhead , and disappeared within . There was a vast cave , the roof reaching high up in a great vault ; the sides black and polished , as though smoothed by the hands of cunning workmen ; the floor a bed of soft , black sand , dry and even as the untrodden desert . In the midst , a boulder of black rock lay like a huge ball , and upon its summit burned a fire that was never quenched , and that needed no replenishing with fuel .