that very place where the Most Great Name was
wont to stroll. How did this come about? It was due to the Afnan's purity
of heart. Lacking this, all those ways and means could never have been
brought to bear. Verily, God is the Mover of heaven and earth.

I loved the Afnan very much. Because of him, I rejoiced. I wrote a long
Visitation Tablet for him and sent it with other papers to Persia. His
burial site is one of the holy places where a magnificent
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar must be raised up. If possible, the actual arch of
the royal palace should be restored and become the House of Worship. The
auxiliary buildings of the House of Worship should likewise be erected
there: the hospital, the schools and university, the elementary school,
the refuge for the poor and indigent; also the haven for orphans and the
helpless, and the travelers' hospice.

Gracious God! That royal edifice was once splendidly decked forth and
fair. But there are spiders' webs today, where hung the curtains of gold
brocade, and where the king's drums beat and his musicians played, the
only sound is the harsh cries of kites and crows. "This is verily the
capital of the owl's realm, where thou wilt hear no sound, save only the
echo of his repeated calls." That is how the barracks were, when we came
to Akka. There were a few trees inside the walls, and on their branches,
as well as up on the battlements, the owls cried all night long. How
disquieting is the hoot of an owl; how it saddens the heart.

From earliest youth until he grew helpless and old, that sacred bough of
the Holy Tree, with his smiling face, shone out like a lamp in the midst
of all. Then he leapt and soared to undying glory, and plunged into the
ocean of light. Upon him be the breathings of his Lord, the All-Merciful.
Upon him, lapped in the waters of grace and forgiveness, be the mercy and
favor of God.

HAJI MIRZA HASAN, THE AFNAN

Among the most eminent of those who left their homeland to join
Baha'u'llah was Mirza Hasan, the great Afnan, who during the latter days
won the honor of emigrating and of receiving the favor and companionship
of his Lord. The Afnan, related to the Bab, was specifically named by the
Supreme Pen as an offshoot of the Holy Tree. When still a small child, he
received his portion of bounty from the Bab, and showed forth an
extraordinary attachment to that dazzling Beauty. Not yet adolescent, he
frequented the society of the learned, and began to