After the death of Cyrus, Daniel was an intimate of King Astyages (Darius the Mede) of Babylon. The king worshipped a great idol called Bel, which appeared to consume each night the twelve bushels of fine flour, forty sheep, and six gallons of wine offered before it. Daniel laughed: 'Be not deceived, O king; for this is but clay within and brass without, and did never eat or drink anything.' Astyages threatened to put the priests to death if they could not prove Bel ate the offerings.
Daniel scattered ashes secretly across the temple floor after the offerings were laid out and the temple was sealed for the night. In the morning, the food was gone — but Daniel showed the king the footprints of men, women, and children in the ashes, leading to a secret door under the offering-table where the priests entered each night with their families. The priests and their families were put to death; Bel was destroyed.
There was also a great dragon kept in the same temple. The king said: 'Daniel, you cannot say that this dragon is not a living god — adore him.' Daniel said: 'I adore the Lord my God, for he is the living God.' Daniel asked permission, took pitch, fat, and hair, boiled them together, made cakes, and put them in the dragon's mouth. The dragon burst asunder. The story is the foundational scriptural critique of idolatry by exposure of its mechanism.