Some texts say that, before establishing his monastery, Gebre Menfes Kidus was tempted by demons and devils for a period of hundred years, after which time the Lord exempted the Ethiopians from sin. Gebre left Zuqualla to wander to Kabd in order to stare at the heavens for seven months without blinking. The devil, in the shape of a raven, came to pick out his eyes. But Menfes Kidus was cured by the archangels Gabriel and Michael, who brought him back to Zuqualla.