Assi became a disciple of R. Johanan, and so distinguished himself that R. Eleazar called him "the prodigy of the age" ("mofet ha-dor"), and legend pictures him accordingly. Concerning the futile longings of many to communicate with the departed spirit of R. Hiyya the Great, legend relates that R. Jose fasted eighty days in order that a glimpse of R. Hiyya might be granted him. Finally Hiyya's spirit appeared, but the sight so affected R. Jose that his hands became palsied and his eyes dim. "Nor must you infer from this," the narrator continues, "that R. Josah was an unimportant individual. Once a weaver came to R. Johanan and said, 'In a dream I have seen the skies fall, but one of your disciples held them up.' When asked whether he knew that disciple, the weaver replied that he would be able to recognize him. R. Johanan thereupon had all his disciples pass before the weaver, who pointed to R. Josah as the miraculous agent." Another adventure, which, however, bears the impress of fact, is related of him, wherein he was once abducted in a riot and given up as lost, but R. Shimon ben Lakish, the former gladiator, rescued him at the risk of his own life.