The tale tells that this beast is the most deadly of all serpents, for its venom is such that whatsoever living thing it looks on it slays, yea, the very grass is withered by its deadly breath. And no man may slay it unawares easily, for once a man slew one with a lance, and the venom of it was such that he died from it, though he came no nearer the body than a spear’s length. This the king knew and he sought not to slay it with a weapon, but he worked so that the worm should kill itself; for he caused his men to make a shield larger than a man, and on this shield he bade put a bright polished mirror, and he wrapped his feet in linen, and put off his armour, and going softly he bore the shield with its mirror before him, and set it down before the den of the basilisk, and went his way. But the basilisk raised its head as its manner was, and looked before it, and saw its face in the mirror, and the poison of its own look killed it, so it fell dead with its eyes wide open, and lay along the path. Then the knight who was on the mountain watching blew his horn, and all men heard it and rejoiced and praised the brave king who had delivered them from the basilisk.
All this while the march of the host had lain between mountains, and when men climbed to the top they saw nothing but other mountains stretching away as far as they could see, no towns, no villages, no living things, and on the day after the basilisk was slain, the road suddenly stopped among the mountains, and the host could go no further. Then Alexander the King bade them turn back to the parting of the ways, and as they passed the place where the basilisk had been he bade them burn it in asbestos cloth, and take its ashes, for the ashes of the basilisk are a precious thing, able to turn lead into pure gold, but the men found it not, though the great mirror was still there. And at the last they came to the temple at the parting of the ways, and the army lay round the temple for a day to rest, for they were sore wearied with the passage through the Eastward way. The next day at sunrise two aged men came out of the temple, and Alexander spoke with them and they told him of the ways, how that Bacchus, one of the gods, had made this road when he came into India and conquered it, and how he had caused the mountains to come together and block it up, so that no man should pass through by it after. Then Alexander asked them of the Northward way, and they told him how it led to the Trees of the Sun and Moon: and they told of the wonders of the trees, and how they spoke with men’s tongues, and told what should be in time to come, and Alexander the King rejoiced.