The expulsion of Tobiah the Ammonite from the room which had been assigned him in the temple by Eliashib, the high priest, was apparently due to two reasons, first because Tobiah was persona non grata to Nehemiah and had already shown himself a dangerous foe to the Jews.

"The Brahmins have an especial veneration for a stone, which is, according to Sonnerat, a fossil ammonite in slate.

The legend of his inspiration, however, may be placed beside the story of how the saintly Abbess turned the snakes into the fossil ammonites with which the liassic shores of Whitby are strewn.