A rabbi and an emperor

The story is told of the pagan emperor who visited the Jewish rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah. The emperor asked to be allowed to see Joshua’s god. The rabbi replied that this was impossible, an answer which failed to satisfy the emperor. So the rabbi took the emperor outside, and asked him to stare at the midday summer sun. “Impossible!” replied the emperor. “If you cannot look at the sun, which God created,” replied the rabbi, “how much less can you behold the glory of God himself!”—Alister McGrath, Theology: The Basics (2nd ed.), 25