From the Second Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ (early Gnostic Christian text): "This child Jesus, when five years old, was playing in the ford of a mountain stream; and He collected the flowing waters into pools, and made them clear immediately, and by a word alone He made them obey Him. And having made some soft clay, He fashioned out of it twelve sparrows. And it was the Sabbath when He did these things. And there were also many other children playing with Him. And a certain Jew, seeing what Jesus was doing, playing on the Sabbath, went off immediately, and said to his father Joseph: Behold, thy son is at the stream, and has taken clay, and made of it twelve birds, and has profaned the Sabbath. And Joseph, coming to the place and seeing, cried out to Him, saying: Wherefore doest thou on the Sabbath what it is not lawful to do? And Jesus clapped His hands, and cried out to the sparrows, and said to them: Off you go! And the sparrows flew, and went off crying. And the Jews seeing this were amazed, and went away and reported to their chief men what they had seen Jesus doing."
From the Koran, Surah 5.110: "When Allah will say: O Isa (Jesus) son of Marium! Remember My favor on you and on your mother, when I strengthened you I with the holy Spirit, you spoke to the people in the cradle and I when of old age, and when I taught you the Book and the wisdom and the Taurat and the Injeel; and when you determined out of clay a thing like the form of a bird by My permission, then you breathed into it and it became a bird by My permission..."
For three days, the twelve sparrows followed Jesus wherever he went. But on the third day, he told them it was time for them to make their own way in the world. “Be free! Love and serve others! Love life! Love the world! And always remember who you are!” And so they scattered.
The first three sparrows flew to the compound where a Roman centurion lived near Nazareth. They found a fresco on a wall, with an image of a boy holding a cluster of grapes. The first sparrow pecked at the grapes, over and over, bewildered that it was unable to taste them.
The second sparrow flew close to the fresco and was frightened by the boy, and flew away.
The third sparrow perched on an olive tree nearby, and gazed at the fresco for hours.
The fourth sparrow flew over a pond and saw itself reflected in the water. Entranced, it came to the ground and stood in front of the water and admired itself for a long time. So long that it lost awareness of its surroundings and was unaware that a cat was lurking behind it. All that was left of it was a pile of feathers next to the pond.
The fifth sparrow perched near a crippled man lying against a wall in Nazareth. He was begging for food. It flew up into a palm tree and picked a date, and flew back to offer it to the beggar.
As the sixth sparrow flew over and around Nazareth, it appreciated the trees in and around the town, and decided that there should be more of them. So instead of just eating the seeds of the terebinth trees, it set many of them aside and pecked holes in the ground to plant them.
The seventh sparrow saw a mockingbird sitting in the nest of another sparrow. Outraged at this injustice, it dived and ducked and dived at the mockingbird until it flew away.
The eighth sparrow, flying through the town, saw a little girl crying, all by herself. It flew down to her and began to sing and hop around in crazy circles and put twigs in front of the girl, who was alarmed at first, but then started giggling.
The ninth sparrow flew into the synagogue of Nazareth and landed on the box in which the Torah scroll was kept. The collective wisdom of the patriarchs and prophets rose up out of the box, through the tiny feet of bird, and into its body and soul.
The tenth sparrow flew to Jesus’ house and found a branch in a bush in the courtyard where it could discretely watch him. Six generations of the tenth sparrow’s offspring followed Jesus for the rest of his life.
The eleventh sparrow found a family of doves in the town square, and was entranced with them. It followed them around, trying vainly to imitate their cooing.
On the mountain above Nazareth, the twelfth sparrow found a cliff pocked with holes in the stone. It invited the other sparrows, as well as birds of many different species, to nest in the holes and join it in a life of contemplation. Thus was founded the first Christian monastery.