諸經要集 1.43

1.43

王玄策西國行傳云。大唐顯慶二年。勅使王玄策等。往西國送佛袈裟。至泥婆羅國西南頗羅度來。村東坎下有一水火池。若將家火照之。其水上即有火焰。於水中出。欲滅以水沃之。其焰轉熾。漢使等曾於中。架一釜煮飯熟。使問彼國王。國王答使人云。曾經以杖刺。著一金匱。令人挽出一挽一深。相傳云。此是彌勒佛當來成道天冠金。火龍防守之。此池火乃是龍火也。

Wang Xuance's Xiguo xingchuan says: "In the second year of the Xianqing era of the Great Tang, the imperial envoy Wang Xuance and others went to the Western Countries to convey the Buddha's kāṣāya. Arriving southwest of Nepāla at Bhāradvāja village, beneath a cavity to the east of the village there was a water-fire pool. If one brought household fire to illuminate it, flames immediately arose on top of its water, emerging from within the water. If one wished to extinguish it by pouring water on it, its flames blazed even more fiercely. The Han envoys once set a cauldron over it and cooked rice to doneness. The envoy asked the king of that country, and the king replied to the envoy: 'Someone once probed it with a staff and touched a golden casket. When people were ordered to pull it out, the more they pulled, the deeper it sank. Tradition says that this is the gold of the heavenly crown for Maitreya Buddha's future attainment of the Way, guarded by a fire dragon. The fire of this pool is indeed dragon fire.'"