torm clouds, restless as the waves of the sea.

Permission came, then, for him to visit the Most Great Prison; for in
Tihran, as a believer, he had become a marked man. They all knew of his
conversion; he had no caution, no patience, no reserve; he cared nothing
for reticence, nothing for dissimulation. He was utterly fearless and in
terrible danger.

When he arrived at the Most Great Prison, the hostile watchers drove him
off, and try as he might he found no way to enter. He was obliged to leave
for Nazareth, where he lived for some time as a stranger, alone with his
two sons, Aqa Qulam-Husayn and Aqa 'Ali-Akbar, grieving and praying. At
last a plan was devised to introduce him into the fortress and he was
summoned to the prison where they had immured the innocent. He came in
such ecstasy as cannot be described, and was admitted to the presence of
Baha'u'llah. When he entered there and lifted his eyes to the Blessed
Beauty he shook and trembled and fell unconscious to the floor.
Baha'u'llah spoke words of loving-kindness to him and he rose again. He
spent some days hidden in the barracks, after which he returned to
Nazareth.

The inhabitants of Nazareth wondered much about him. They told one another
that he was obviously a great and distinguished man in his own country, a
notable and of high rank; and they asked themselves why he should have
chosen such an out-of-the-way corner of the world as Nazareth and how he
could be contented with such poverty and hardship.

When, in fulfillment of the promise of the Most Great Name, the gates of
the Prison were flung wide, and all the friends and travelers could enter
and leave the fortress-town in peace and with respect, Nabil of Qa'in
would journey to see Baha'u'llah once in every month. However, as
commanded by Him, he continued to live in Nazareth, where he converted a
number of Christians to the Faith; and there he would weep, by day and
night, over the wrongs that were done to Baha'u'llah.

His means of livelihood was his business partnership with me. That is, I
provided him with a capital of three krans;(30) with it he bought needles,
and this was his stock-in-trade. The women of Nazareth gave him eggs in
exchange for his needles and in this way he would obtain thirty or forty
eggs a day: three needles per egg. Then he would sell the eggs and live on
the proceeds. Since there was a daily caravan between Akka and Nazareth,
he would refer to Aqa Rida each day, for more