In the Babylonian Talmud, Quiddushin chapter 4, Folios 81A-81B, we read of the transformative abilities of Satan and the yetzer hara (the evil impulse/inclination):
II.10 A. R. Meir would ridicule sinners. One day Satan appeared to him on the
opposite side of a canal in the form of a woman. There being no ferry, he
grabbed a rope and got across. As he had reached half way down the rope,
[temptation] released him, saying, “If they had not accounted in Heaven,
‘Watch out for R. Meir and his Torah learning,’ I would not have valued your life for two maahs.”
II.11 A. R. Aqiba would ridicule sinners. One day Satan appeared to him on the
top of a palm tree in the form of a woman. He was climbing up, till he got half
way up the palm tree, when [temptation] released him, saying, “If they had not
accounted in Heaven, ‘Watch out for R. Aqiba and his Torah learning,’ I would not have valued your life for two
maahs.”
II.12 A. Every day Pelimo would be accustomed to say, “An arrow in the eyes of
Satan.” One day, the eve of the Day of Atonement, Satan appeared to him in the
guise of a poor man. He came and called at the door. They brought food out to
him. He said to him, “On a day such as this, when everybody is inside, should I
be outside?”
B. They
brought him in and served food to him.
C. He
said to them, “On such a day, when everybody is at the table, should I sit all
by myself?”
D. They
brought him in and seated him at the table.
E. While
he was sitting there, his body was covered with [Freedman:] suppurating sores, and he conducted himself
in a disgusting way. He said to him, [81B]
“Sit nicely.”
F. He
said to him, “Give me a cup of wine.”
G. They
gave a cup of wine to him. He coughed and spit the phlegm into it. They yelled
at him. He fainted and died. They heard people saying, “Pelimo has killed a
man, Pelimo has killed a man.”
H. He
fled, hiding out in a privy. [Satan] followed him in and Pelimo fell before
him. When he saw how troubled he was, he revealed himself to him. He said to
him, “How come you go around saying this and that?”
I. “So
how am I supposed to talk?”
J. He
said to him, “May the All-Merciful rebuke Satan.”
II.13 A. R. Hiyya bar Ashi was accustomed, whenever he prostrated himself to his
face, to say, “May the All-Merciful save us from the Evil Impulse.”
B. Once
his wife heard this. She said, “Now how many years he has kept away from me, so
how come he says this?”
C. One
day he was studying in his garden, and she dressed up [in disguise] and walked
back and forth before him. He said to him, “How are you?”
D. She
said to him, “I’m Haruta [the famous whore], and I’ve come back today.”
E. He
lusted after her. She said to him, “Bring me that pomegranate from the top
bough.”
F. He
climbed up and got it for her. When he went back inside his house, his wife was
heating the oven, so he climbed up and sat down in it. She said to him, “So
what’s going on?”
G. He
told her what had happened. She said to him, “So it was really me.” But he
wouldn’t believe her until she gave him the pomegranate.
H. He
said to her, “Well, anyhow, my intention was to do what is prohibited.”
I. For the rest of the life of that
righteous man he fasted [in penitence] until he died on that account. (Jacob
Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud, 22 vols. [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Publishers, 2011], 12:399-400)