and makes him absent from what he has left. This Imam is not like that: the station he has left is preserved for him and does not become absent from him, through a divine power God has granted him particularly.
His spirit has two hundred wings and four wings. Whichever wing he spreads, he flies by it wherever he wills. He has a footing in the third rank and the first, and at times is called the Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
His beginning was from the third rank, the rank of inheriting prophethood, and his end was at the first rank, the rank of faith. His way was thus from his end to his beginning, contrary to familiar wayfaring. He returned backward, traversing stations, degrees and spiritual Abodes.
From his end to his beginning are nineteen Abodes, including the Abode of the beginning and the end. There is an Abode whose degrees[1] are one hundred and two, and ten, and ninety, and twenty and three, and four and thirty, and five and forty, and six and fifty, and seven and sixty, and eight and seventy, and eighty and nine, and two hundred.
The ranks are four, with none beyond them. Each rank requires endless matters of sciences, secrets and states. The first rank is faith; the second, friendship; the third, prophethood; and the fourth, messengership.
Although messengership and prophethood have ceased within this community in respect of legislation, inheritance from them has not ceased. Some inherit prophethood, some inherit messengership, and some inherit messengership
Notes
[1]
(The enumeration of degrees and the wording of their numbers have been retained as they occur in the file, without arithmetic normalization or a change in their order.)
