teries of 'Fear God and God will give you
knowledge';(5) and the bird of thy soul shall recall the holy sanctuaries
of preexistence and soar on the wings of longing in the heaven of 'walk
the beaten paths of thy Lord',(6) and gather the fruits of communion in
the gardens of 'Then feed on every kind of fruit.'"(7)

By My life, O friend, wert thou to taste of these fruits, from the green
garden of these blossoms which grow in the lands of knowledge, beside the
orient lights of the Essence in the mirrors of names and
attributes--yearning would seize the reins of patience and reserve from out
thy hand, and make thy soul to shake with the flashing light, and draw
thee from the earthly homeland to the first, heavenly abode in the Center
of Realities, and lift thee to a plane wherein thou wouldst soar in the
air even as thou walkest upon the earth, and move over the water as thou
runnest on the land. Wherefore, may it rejoice Me, and thee, and whosoever
mounteth into the heaven of knowledge, and whose heart is refreshed by
this, that the wind of certitude hath blown over the garden of his being,
from the Sheba of the All-Merciful.

Peace be upon him who followeth the Right Path!

And further: The stages that mark the wayfarer's journey from the abode of
dust to the heavenly homeland are said to be seven. Some have called these
Seven Valleys, and others, Seven Cities. And they say that until the
wayfarer taketh leave of self, and traverseth these stages, he shall never
reach to the ocean of nearness and union, nor drink of the peerless wine.
The first is

The Valley of Search

The steed of this Valley is patience; without patience the wayfarer on
this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal. Nor should he ever be
downhearted; if he strive for a hundred thousand years and yet fail to
behold the beauty of the Friend, he should not falter. For those who seek
the Ka'bih(8) of "for Us" rejoice in the tidings: "In Our ways will We
guide them."(9) In their search, they have stoutly girded up the loins of
service, and seek at every moment to journey from the plane of
heedlessness into the realm of being. No bond shall hold them back, and no
counsel shall deter them.

It is incumbent on these servants that they cleanse the heart--which is the
wellspring of divine treasures--from every marking, and that they turn away
from imitation, which is following the traces of their forefathers and
sires, and shut the door of fr