inding that his prayer had been
answered, he addressed a plea to the governor begging him to release his
Captive, and thereby deflect the fatal course of this dire visitation.
Husayn _Kh_an acceded to his request, and released his Prisoner on
condition of His quitting the city.

Miraculously preserved by an almighty and watchful Providence, the Bab
proceeded to Isfahan (September, 1846), accompanied by Siyyid
Kazim-i-Zanjani. Another lull ensued, a brief period of comparative
tranquillity during which the Divine processes which had been set in
motion gathered further momentum, precipitating a series of events leading
to the imprisonment of the Bab in the fortresses of Mah-Ku and _Ch_ihriq,
and culminating in His martyrdom in the barrack-square of Tabriz. Well
aware of the impending trials that were to afflict Him, the Bab had, ere
His final separation from His family, bequeathed to His mother and His
wife all His possessions, had confided to the latter the secret of what
was to befall Him, and revealed for her a special prayer the reading of
which, He assured her, would resolve her perplexities and allay her
sorrows. The first forty days of His sojourn in Isfahan were spent as the
guest of Mirza Siyyid Muhammad, the Sultanu'l-'Ulama, the Imam-Jum'ih, one
of the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries of the realm, in accordance
with the instructions of the governor of the city, Manu_ch_ihr _Kh_an, the
Mu Tamidu'd-Dawlih, who had received from the Bab a letter requesting him
to appoint the place where He should dwell. He was ceremoniously received,
and such was the spell He cast over the people of that city that, on one
occasion, after His return from the public bath, an eager multitude
clamored for the water that had been used for His ablutions. So magic was
His charm that His host, forgetful of the dignity of his high rank, was
wont to wait personally upon Him. It was at the request of this same
prelate that the Bab, one night, after supper, revealed His well-known
commentary on the surih of Va'l-'Asr. Writing with astonishing rapidity,
He, in a few hours, had devoted to the exposition of the significance of
only the first letter of that surih--a letter which _Sh_ay_kh_
Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i had stressed, and which Baha'u'llah refers to in the
Kitab-i-Aqdas--verses that equalled in number a third of the Qur'an, a feat
that called forth such an outburst of reverent astonishment from those who
witnessed it that they arose and kisse