After his vision of Paul's soul beying carried away by angels, Anthony returns to his friend's hermitage, where he find's the old man's dead body, kneeling in a position of prayer. He could find no no way of burying the body - but a pair of lions emerged from the mountain and proceeded to dig the grave for him (this detail of the legend was a popular one and was later recycled by the authors of the Vita of St Mary of Egypt - see Bay 142, panel B2.