easure verily it
is better for you than that ye should slay. Today the friends of God must
appear in such fashion amidst [God's] servants that by their actions they
may lead all unto the pleasure of the Lord of Glory. I swear by the Sun of
the Horizon of Holiness that the friends of God never have regarded nor
will regard the earth or its transitory riches. God hath ever regarded the
hearts of [His] servants, and this too is by reason of [His] most great
favor, that perchance mortal souls may be cleansed and sanctified from
earthly states and may attain unto everlasting places. But that Real King
is in Himself sufficient unto Himself [and independent] of all: neither
doth any advantage accrue to Him from the love of contingent beings, nor
doth any hurt befall Him from their hatred. All earthly places appear
through Him and unto Him return, and God singly and alone abideth in His
own place which is holy above space and time, mention and utterance, sign,
description, and definition, height and depth. And none knoweth this save
Him and whosoever hath knowledge of the Book. There is no God but Him, the
Mighty, the Bountiful.' Finis.

"But good deeds depend on this, that the Royal Person should himself look
into that [matter] with just and gracious regard, and not be satisfied
with the representations of certain persons unsupported by proof or
evidence. We ask God to strengthen the King unto that which He willeth:
and what He willeth should be the wish of the worlds.

"Afterwards they summoned this Servant to Constantinople. We reached that
city along with a number of poor unfortunates, and after Our arrival did
not hold intercourse with a single soul, for We had naught to say [unto
them], and there was no wish save that it should be clearly demonstrated
by proof to all that this Servant had no thought of sedition and had never
associated with the seditious. And, by Him in praise of Whose spirit the
tongues of all things speak, to turn in any direction was difficult in
consideration of certain circumstances; but these things were done for the
protection of lives. Verily My Lord knoweth what is in My soul, and verily
He is witness unto what I say. The just king is the shadow of God in the
earth; all should take refuge under the shadow of his justice and rest in
the shade of his favor. This is not the place for personalities, or
censures [directed] specially against some apart from others; for the
shadow tells of him who caste