The Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men

A dialogue written in Catalan around 1274–1276 by Ramon Llull of Majorca, who devoted his life to converting Muslims and Jews through reasoned argument. A Gentile, a learned pagan who believes neither in God nor in the resurrection, wanders in despair at the thought of death. In a forest he meets three wise men, a Jew, a Christian and a Saracen (Muslim), beside a spring where five trees grow. Lady Intelligence has explained to them that the flowers of the trees join God's attributes to one another and to the virtues and vices, and give rules for arguing that all three faiths can accept. In Book I the three wise men use the trees to prove that God exists and that there is a resurrection, and the Gentile's grief turns to joy. In Books II–IV the Jew, the Christian and the Saracen each set out the articles of his own faith. The book is notable for its courteous tone and for leaving the final choice unrecorded.

It is an early and unusually even-handed portrait of Jewish, Christian and Muslim belief in dialogue, and still a model of civil disagreement between religions.