led in the year 1274 A.H., partly in Persian,
partly in Arabic, it was originally designated the "Hidden Book of
Fatimih," and was identified by its Author with the Book of that same
name, believed by _Sh_i'ah Islam to be in the possession of the promised
Qa'im, and to consist of words of consolation addressed by the angel
Gabriel, at God's command, to Fatimih, and dictated to the Imam 'Ali, for
the sole purpose of comforting her in her hour of bitter anguish after the
death of her illustrious Father. The significance of this dynamic
spiritual leaven cast into the life of the world for the reorientation of
the minds of men, the edification of their souls and the rectification of
their conduct can best be judged by the description of its character given
in the opening passage by its Author: "This is that which hath descended
from the Realm of Glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and
revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof
and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the
righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God, may
fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit obtain the
gem of Divine virtue."

To these two outstanding contributions to the world's religious
literature, occupying respectively, positions of unsurpassed preeminence
among the doctrinal and ethical writings of the Author of the Baha'i
Dispensation, was added, during that same period, a treatise that may well
be regarded as His greatest mystical composition, designated as the "Seven
Valleys," which He wrote in answer to the questions of _Sh_ay_kh_
Muhyi'd-Din, the Qadi of _Kh_aniqayn, in which He describes the seven
stages which the soul of the seeker must needs traverse ere it can attain
the object of its existence.

The "Four Valleys," an epistle addressed to the learned _Sh_ay_kh_
'Abdu'r-Rahman-i-Karkuti; the "Tablet of the Holy Mariner," in which
Baha'u'llah prophesies the severe afflictions that are to befall Him; the
"Lawh-i-Huriyyih" (Tablet of the Maiden), in which events of a far remoter
future are foreshadowed; the "Suriy-i-Sabr" (Surih of Patience), revealed
on the first day of Ridvan which extols Vahid and his fellow-sufferers in
Nayriz; the commentary on the Letters prefixed to the Surihs of the
Qur'an; His interpretation of the letter Vav, mentioned in the writings of
_Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i, and of other abstruse passages in the works o