And the mountain at places looked like (massive) gold, and elsewhere it resembled a silvery (pile), and at some places it was like a (sable) heap of collyrium. Such was the snowy hill where the king now found himself. And that most praiseworthy of men at that spot betook himself to an awful austere course of life. And for one thousand years his subsistence was nothing but water, fruit and roots.

In plain words: In places the mountain looked like gold, in others like silver, and in others black as eye-paint. There the king began very strict penance and lived for a thousand years on only water, fruit and roots.