[65] Döllinger, _The Gentile and the Jew_, II., pp. 384, 386, Eng. Tr., _Heidenthum und Judenthum_, pp. 825, 827.
[66] The following story is given by Mahometan commentators on the passage, "God took Abraham for His friend," which occurs in the fourth chapter of the Koran, entitled _Nessa_, or "Women:" Abraham was the father of the poor, and in a famine he emptied his granaries to feed them. Then he sent to one of his friends, who was a great lord in Egypt, for corn. But the friend said, "We also are in danger of famine. The corn is not wanted for Abraham, but for his poor. I must keep it for our own poor." And the messengers returned with empty sacks. As they neared home they feared being mocked for their failure; so they filled their sacks with sand, and came in well laden. In private they told Abraham of his friend's refusal, and Abraham at once retired to pray. Meanwhile Sarah opened one of the sacks, and found excellent flour in it, and with this began to bake bread for the poor. When Abraham returned from prayer he asked Sarah whence she obtained the flour. "From that which your friend in Egypt has sent," she replied. "Say rather from that which the true Friend has sent, that is God; for it is He who never fails us in our need." At the moment when Abraham called God his Friend God took Abraham also to be His friend. (See the notes in Sale's _Koran_; D'Herbelot's _Bibliothèque Orientale_, Maestricht, 1776, p. 13; Bishop Thirlwall's _Letters to a Friend_, Bentley, 1882, pp. 63, 64).
Eusebius (_Præp. Evan._ IX. xix., p. 420) quotes Alexander Polyhistor (_c._ B.C. 80) as stating that Molon (Josephus, _Contra Apionem_, II. xiv.) interpreted the name Abraham as meaning the "Father's Friend" (πατρὸς φίλος), probably through a misspelling of the name. (See Lightfoot's note on Clem. Rom. x.)