The strongest He II emission in the visible spectral range, at 4686 A, is for the first time observed at a spectral resolution sufficiently high for a line profile analysis in quiescent solar prominences. It is found that the He II line width exceeds by far that of emissions from neutral helium which, in turn, show significant differences between the triplet and singlet emissions. The width hierarchy from singlet over triplet to He II suggests an origin in increasingly hot plasma of the transition to hot coronal surroundings. The ratio of integrated line emission is found to be independent on the prominence size suggesting that each fine-structure has its own transition to hot coronal gas in between the treads.