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We also find (Berahot 40a) the following:

The tree of which the first man ate...Rabbi Nehemiah says: It was the FIG, the
thing wherewith they were spoilt, yet were they redressed by it. As it is said: And
they stitched a FIG-LEAF.

In the non-canonical Book of Adam and Eve, we find further confirmation of this
viewpoint:

I sought a leaf to cover up my nakedness and found none, for, when I ate, the
leaves withered off every tree in my plot except for the FIG, and from it I took
leaves and it made me a girdle, EVEN FROM THE TREE OF WHICH I ATE.
(20:5).

It is quite apparent, then, that the Jews consider the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil to have been the FIG; but what about the traditions of OTHER nations or
religions?

Evidence from Other Nations

There is, it turns out, ABUNDANT EVIDENCE from many peoples of the
Middle East and Asia to support this viewpoint. Notice, now, the traditions of India:

The tree more particularly revered by Buddhists is the Bo-tree, or Tree of Buddha.
Often it is used as a symbol of Buddha. It belongs as close to Buddha as the Cross
does to Jesus Christ. Legend states that Buddha attained his great
ENLIGHTENMENT after six year's meditation under the Bo-tree. Bo is a
contraction of Bodhi, WHICH MEANS WISDOM THROUGH A TREE. Here
again we are confronted with THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. -- Tree Worship,
by Charles Alldritt. Strong & Ready Ltd., Auckland. 1965. P.60.

And what TYPE of tree was the Bo-tree? A new book published by the
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York answers:

Deciding that the answer was to be found in his [Buddha's] own consciousness, he
sat in meditation under a PIPAL, OR INDIAN FIG TREE. Resisting attacks and
temptations by the DEVIL MARA, he continued steadfast in his meditation...until
he supposedly transcended all KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING and
reached enlightenment. -- Mankind's Search For God, 1990. P.137.

The Encyclopedia Britannica (1943) confirms this:
The SACRED FIG, peepul or bo (F. religiosa), a large tree with heart-shaped,
long-pointed leaves on slender footstalks, is much grown in southern Asia....in
India it is chiefly planted with a religious object, being regarded as sacred by both
Brahmans and Buddhists. A gigantic bo, growing near Anarajapoora, in Ceylon,
is, if tradition may be trusted, one of the oldest trees in the world. It is said to have