על חיי משה, ספר א ל״זOn the Life of Moses, Book I 37
א׳
1[206] There is something still more wonderful to be told. During all that long period of forty years in which they journeyed, the food required was supplied according to the rules just mentioned, like rations measured out to provide the allotment needed for each.
ב׳
2[207] At the same time, they learned to date aright the day of which they had dearly longed to have knowledge. For, long before, they had asked what was the birthday of the world on which this universe was completed, and to this question, which had been passed down unsolved from generation to generation, they now at long last found the answer, learnt not only through divine pronouncements but by a perfectly certain proof. For, as we have said, while the surplus of the downpour decayed on the other days, on the day before the seventh it not only did not change, but was actually supplied in double measure.
ג׳
3[208] The method they employed with the food was as follows: At dawn they collected what fell, ground or crunched it and then boiled it, when they found it a very pleasant form of food, like a honey-cake, and felt no need of elaborate cookery.
ד׳
4[209] But in fact, not long after, they were well supplied with the means of luxurious living, since God was pleased to provide to them abundantly, and more than abundantly, in the wilderness all the viands which are found in a rich and well-inhabited country. For in the evenings a continuous cloud of quails appeared from the sea and overshadowed the whole camp, flying close to the land, so as to be an easy prey. So they caught and dressed them, each according to his tastes, and feasted on flesh of the most delicious kind, thus obtaining the relish required to make their food more palatable.