xalted and intractable theme
and touched upon this sublime and impenetrable mystery, know that the
Christian and Jewish peoples have not grasped the intent of the words of
God and the promises He hath made to them in His Book, and have therefore
denied His Cause, turned aside from His Prophets, and rejected His proofs.
Had they but fixed their gaze upon the testimony of God itself, had they
refused to follow in the footsteps of the abject and foolish among their
leaders and divines, they would doubtless have attained to the repository
of guidance and the treasury of virtue, and quaffed from the crystal
waters of life eternal in the city of the All-Merciful, in the garden of
the All-Glorious, and within the inner reality of His paradise. But as
they have refused to see with the eyes wherewith God hath endowed them,
and desired things other than that which He in His mercy had desired for
them, they have strayed far from the retreats of nearness, have been
deprived of the living waters of reunion and the wellspring of His grace,
and have lain as dead within the shrouds of their own selves.

7 Through the power of God and His might, I shall now relate certain
passages revealed in the Books of old, and mention some of the signs
heralding the appearance of the Manifestations of God in the sanctified
persons of His chosen Ones, that thou mayest recognize the Dayspring of
this everlasting morn and behold this Fire that blazeth in the Tree which
is neither of the East nor of the West.(4) Perchance thine eyes may be
opened upon attaining the presence of thy Lord and thy heart partake of
the blessings concealed within these hidden treasuries. Render thanks then
unto God, Who hath singled thee out for this grace and Who hath numbered
thee with them that are assured of meeting their Lord.

8 This is the text of that which was revealed aforetime in the first
Gospel, according to Matthew, regarding the signs that must needs herald
the advent of the One Who shall come after Him. He saith: "And woe unto
them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days...",(5)
until the mystic Dove, singing in the midmost heart of eternity, and the
celestial Bird, warbling upon the Divine Lote-Tree, saith: "Immediately
after the oppression of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the
powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of
t