Tesserakontapechys 1 was a Jew living in Tiberias in the reign of the caliph Yezid II (Yezid 2); he was a leader of the Jewish community, allegedly a sorcerer, and an enemy of the Christians (ἦν δέ τις ἐν τῇ Τιβεριάδι προηγέτης τῶν παρανόμων Ἑβραίων, φαρμακομάντις, δαιμόνων ψυχοβλαβῶν ὄργανον, ὀνομαζόμενος Τεσσαρακοντάπηχυς, δυσμενὴς ἐχθρὸς τῆς ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Θεοῦ); observing that Yezid 2 was weak and easily influenced, he wormed his way into his favour by a series of successful predictions and then made him a promise that he would guarantee him a long life and a reign lasting thirty years if he would order the destruction of all pictorial representations throughout his realm, including those in Christian churches and in public places; the caliph did so and there was widespread destruction of icons and pictures by Jews and Arabs; however Yezid 2 died only two years and a half after issuing the order, the images were then restored and Yezid's son Oulidos (Walid 2) ordered the sorcerer to be cruelly executed on the grounds that he was responsible for the death of Yezid 2 (ὡς φονέα τοῦ ἰδίου πατρὸς): Mansi XIII 197-200 (a statement read out to the Seventh Ecumenical Council by Ioannes 15 describing the origins of iconoclasm), cf. Nicephorus, Antirrheticus III, 528D-532A (telling the same story). Yezid 2 died in 724 and the edict was issued in 721; see Yezid 2. According to Zonaras, Yezid 2 was persuaded to banish images of Christ and His Mother from Christian churches by two Jewish sorcerers who promised him a long life and reign if he did so; when Yezid 2 died within the year, his son and successor pursued the two men but they escaped and fled to Isauria; there they foretold to the young Leo 3 (the future emperor Leo III) that he would eventually become emperor and made him promise a reward if the prophecy came true; in the ninth year of Leo III's reign (i.e. c. 726) they came to him and as their reward asked for the images of Christ and His Mother to be destroyed; this was allegedly why Leo III began to remove icons: Zon. XV 3. 1-10. The story is impossible chronologically and is evidently an invention to associate iconoclasm with both Islam and the Jews.

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