Noah in rabbinic literature "Sefer haYashar" describes another method for distinguishing them: the clean animals and fowls crouched before Noah, while the unclean ones remained standing. A difference of opinion concerning Noah prevails also with regard to his entering into the ark. According to some rabbis, Noah's faith was so small that he did not enter the ark until he stood ankle deep in water (Genesis Rabba xxxii. 9); others declare, on the contrary, that Noah waited for God's directions to enter the ark, just as he awaited His permission to leave it (ib. 34.4; Midrash Agadat Bereshit, in Jellinek, "B. H." iv. 11).
Generations of Noah traced their ancestry; in William of Malmesbury's version of this genealogy (c. 1120), Sceaf is instead made a descendant of "Strephius", the fourth son born aboard the Ark ("Gesta Regnum Anglorum"). An early Arabic work known as "Kitab al-Magall" "Book of Rolls" (part of Clementine literature) mentions "Bouniter", the fourth son of Noah, born after the flood, who allegedly invented astronomy and instructed Nimrod. Variants of this story with often similar names for Noah's fourth son are also found in the c. fifth century Ge'ez work "Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan" ("Barvin"), the c. sixth century Syriac book