Things went on this way for seven years. Then Alexander made another inquiry into what else to ask from God, and found the prophetic words: "On the law of the Lord he will meditate day and night." He thought to himself and said, "How is that even possible?" Reason furnished the reply: "The Holy Spirit would not send us an impossible command through the oracle by any means." [....] And he devoted three years to preyer and fasting day and night, and beseeching God that this command, albeit a job for heavenly powers, might yet be fulfilled through him upon the earth.
God was well aware of His servant's reverence and goodwill, and the burning heat of his zeal, and in His complaisance and philanthropy granted Alexander's wish, disclosing Himself visibly and saying to him: "Be the founder of what you wish for, and at your word it will stand on earth until this age comes to its end." (Alexander conveyed this to us as if it had happened to someone else, and in this he was a disciple of the blessed apostle Paul, who narrated his visionary rapture as something that befell another person.)
After this mystery was revealed to him, he sought some standard for fulfilling the command, but on seeing the weakness of human nature, he was disappointed. For he ransacked both Testaments, and scanned the greatest men of every era for someone to emulate, in order that he might fulfill his good intentions and save many souls—and found that no one on earth had ever accomplished this prodigious feat. So Alexander took the universe's Maker as his guru.
From The Life of Alexander the Sleepless III.29-30
