Sambation
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According to rabbinic literature, the Sambation is the river beyond which the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were exiled by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V. In the earliest references, such as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the river is given no particular attributes, but later literature claims it rages with rapids and throws up stones six days a week, or even consists entirely of stone, sand and flame. For those six days the Sambation is impossible to cross, but it stops flowing every Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath), the day Jews are not allowed to travel; some writers say this is the origin of the name. The Sambation was a popular subject in medieval literature, for instance, some versions of the Alexander Romance have Alexander the Great encounter the river on his travels.
In 1280, Abraham Abulafia (1240 – c. 1291), a mystic and Kabbalist, set out to find the Sambation. He stopped in Rome to see Pope Nicholas III. The meeting never took place; Abulafia was jailed. The purpose of his attempted meeting is unknown, but Abulafia apparently believed he was the (or a) Messiah, and it has been suggested he was attempting to convert the Pope.
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