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Rufinus informs us that, when it was destroyed by order of Theodosius, the temple of Serapis at Alexandria was found to be full of secret passages and machines, contrived to aid the impostures of the priests; among other things, on the eastern side of the temple, was a little window, through which, on a certain day of the year, the sunbeams entering fell on the mouth of the statue of Memnon. At the same moment an iron image of the sun was brought in, which, being attracted by a large loadstone fixed in the ceiling, ascended up to the image. The priests then cried out, that the sun saluted their god.

This Memnon was said to be the son of Tithonus and Aurora, and a statue of him in black marble was set up at Thebes. It is also related that the mouth of the statue, when first touched by the rays of the rising sun, sent forth a sweet and harmonious sound, as though it rejoiced when its mother Aurora appeared; but, at the setting of the sun, it sent forth a low melancholy tone, as if lamenting its mother’s departure.