Perhaps a miracle will occur, etc.: It is a little difficult. For how did Abbaye push him into a dangerous place based on the doubt of perhaps a miracle will occur? And even if a miracle would occur, they (the celestial court) would deduct him from his merits, as it says in general. And it can be said (answered) that Abbaye certainly relied on [Rav Acha's] saintliness and that he would not be injured on account of his prayer, and that he would kill the demon. And that is not called a miracle. Rather he said perhaps a miracle will occur before the prayer, and they will deduct him from his merits. But one should not refrain from the certainty that he would kill him because of this doubt. And with this, that which he said to them the next day fits - "If a miracle had not occurred, would you have placed me in danger?" As he was upset with them that they did not attribute the thing to his prayer, but rather to the miracle - so you brought me to this trait, that I would be deducted from my merits!

Like a serpent with seven heads. Every bow that he bowed, [one] fell off, etc.: This is according to that which it says in the first chapter of Bava Kamma (16a:22), "A person’s spine, after seventy years, turns into a snake. And that is when that person did not bow during the blessing of thanksgiving (modim)." And the Tosafot there wrote it is because, with the bowing - we say when he straightens, he should straighten like a snake. And that is why it said here [that] when that pious man bowed according to its law, this power of the snake detached and fell down. And the seven heads of the serpent are the seven forces of impurity that the primordial serpent brought to the world.