Sunlight drops below the horizon and strips the heat from the stone floor. Absolute blackness swallows the terrain in an instant. A man and a woman collapse against the dirt because they have never seen the day end. The concept of night does not exist in their minds. They lie motionless on the ground and wait for death in the cold air.
The narrative of this first sunset originated during the sixth century a.d. in Eastern Christian centers. Later writers translated the text into Arabic and then into the Ethiopic language. Solomon Caesar Malan published the first English translation of these manuscripts in 1882, printing the text in a physical book measuring nine inches tall. These documents group the story within a larger historical collection known as the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan.
The text places the two figures at the mouth of the Cave of Treasures. This stone cavern sits on a mountain slope directly below their former garden. They watch the light disappear behind a western ridge and believe the world has ended. The physical shock of the sudden temperature drop paralyzes their limbs. God speaks from the dark to explain the rotating cycle of daylight and evening. The voice tells them his design requires night to follow day, proving a basic mechanism of human behavior.
Terror takes root when the eyes find nothing but black sky.
This complete blindness shatters when the morning breaks over the eastern hills. The sun climbs back into the sky and brings warmth to the cold ground. The man and woman stand up from the dirt and realize the darkness is merely a temporary shadow. The day resumes its normal rhythm over the rocks. They take their first steps back into the sunlight and begin to learn the rigid rules of a harsh new world.