Sauron and Istari

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

Sauron had already had an experience of what an embodied Maia could do - Melian. Even foolish and somewhat weak they could get an understanding of The Ring's potential quicker than anyone else and highly likely to find shortcuts to mastering it as they had dealt with that enormous power potentials back in Aman.

But an incarnate Maia was an altogether different proposition to one of the Istari, who purposely had the weaknesses and frailties of Men, and whose power was confined. Even Gandalf the White had very limited power compared to a normal incarnate Maia.

Originally Posted by Sarumian

I'd say that thinking someone weak would not take the Ring to himself is (in my opinion) going to contradict everything Sauron implied about the nature of the Ring and people. NO-ONE who sees it can resist its charm, that's how he designed it...

I think Sauron would have dismissed anyone who denied the Ring as a fool, not as someone of high moral stature. He was no longer capable of understanding the difference; he believed that everything everyone did was, in the same way as himself, for the sake of power.

We've already observed that Sauron believed (or had convinced himself) that Eru no longer cared about Arda, so he surely couldn't have recognised that Gandalf was by that stage present through the direct intervention of Eru himself. Surely he must not even have known that Gandalf had died and been resurrected.