11. And on the day following he went forth
still more eagerly bent on the service of God and having fallen in with
the old man he had met previously, he asked him to dwell with him in
the desert. But when the other declined on account of his great age,
and because as yet there was no such custom, Antony himself set off
forthwith to the mountain. And yet again the enemy seeing his zeal and
wishing to hinder it, cast in his way what seemed to be a great silver
dish. But Antony, seeing the guile of the Evil One, stood, and having
looked on the dish, he put the devil in it to shame, saying,
‘Whence comes a dish in the desert? This road is not well-worn,
nor is there here a trace of any wayfarer; it could not have fallen
without being missed on account of its size; and he who had lost it
having turned back, to seek it, would have found it, for it is a desert
place. This is some wile of the devil. O thou Evil One, not with this
shalt thou hinder my purpose; let it go with thee to destruction.10131013’ And when Antony had said this it
vanished like smoke from the face of fire.