Ruler of Babylon who, during a feast, saw magical writing appear on the wall that foretold the doom of Babylon (
Daniel, chapter 5). This event was followed by the Persian conquest of Babylon. This Biblical legend is the source of the popular phrase "the writing is on the wall" as an euphemism for doom, especially impending doom that is so obvious only a fool would not see it coming.
All Wikipedia text
is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License