s emblem, they have risen
against Me, and heaped upon Me their denials! Uncover Thy Self, therefore,
O My Best-Beloved, and deliver Me from My plight.

Thereupon a Voice replied: "I love, I dearly cherish this emblem. How can
I consent that Mine eyes, alone, gaze upon this emblem, and that no heart
except Mine heart recognize it? By My Beauty, which is the same as Thy
Beauty! My wish is to hide Thee from Mine own eyes: how much more from the
eyes of men!"

I was preparing to make reply, when lo, the Tablet was suddenly ended,
leaving My theme unfinished, and the pearl of Mine utterance unstrung.

XLI: GOD IS MY WITNESS, O PEOPLE! I WAS ASLEEP...

God is My witness, O people! I was asleep on My couch, when lo, the Breeze
of God wafting over Me roused Me from My slumber. His quickening Spirit
revived Me, and My tongue was unloosed to voice His Call. Accuse Me not of
having transgressed against God. Behold Me, not with your eyes but with
Mine. Thus admonisheth you He Who is the Gracious, the All-Knowing. Think
ye, O people, that I hold within My grasp the control of God's ultimate
Will and Purpose? Far be it from Me to advance such claim. To this I
testify before God, the Almighty, the Exalted, the All-Knowing, the
All-Wise. Had the ultimate destiny of God's Faith been in Mine hands, I
would have never consented, even though for one moment, to manifest Myself
unto you, nor would I have allowed one word to fall from My lips. Of this
God Himself is, verily, a witness.

XLII: O SON OF JUSTICE! IN THE NIGHT SEASON THE...

O Son of Justice! In the night season the beauty of the immortal Being
hath repaired from the emerald height of fidelity unto the
Sadratu'l-Muntaha, and wept with such a weeping that the Concourse on high
and the dwellers of the realms above wailed at His lamenting. Whereupon
there was asked, Why the wailing and weeping? He made reply: As bidden I
waited expectant upon the hill of faithfulness, yet inhaled not from them
that dwell on earth the fragrance of fidelity. Then summoned to return I
beheld, and lo! certain doves of holiness were sore tried within the claws
of the dogs of earth. Thereupon the Maid of Heaven hastened forth unveiled
and resplendent from Her mystic mansion, and asked of their names, and all
were told but one. And when urged, the first letter thereof was uttered,
whereupon the dwellers of the celestial chambers rushed forth out of their
habitation of glory. And wh