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assuredly to these afflictions shall the greatest mercy succeed,
and after these most grievous hardships shall follow great ease.
But [Our] hope is this, that His Majesty the King will himself
turn his attention to [these] matters, which thing will be the
cause of hope in [Our] hearts. And this is unmixed good which
hath been submitted, and God sufficeth for a witness.
"Glory be to Thee, O God! O God, I bear witness that the heart of the King is between the fingers of Thy power: if Thou pleasest, turn it, O God, in the direction of mercy and kindliness: verily Thou art the Exalted, the Potent, the Beneficent: there is no God but Thee, the Mighty from whom help is sought.
"Concerning the qualifications of the doctors, He saith: `But amongst the lawyers he who guardeth himself, observeth his religion, opposeth his lust, and obeyeth the command of his Lord--it is incumbent on the people to follow him...' unto the end. And if the King of the age will regard this utterance, which proceeded from the tongue of the recipient of divine inspiration, he will observe that those characterized by the qualities transmitted in the aforementioned tradition are rarer than the philosopher's stone. Therefore the claim of every person pretending to science neither hath been nor is heard.
"So likewise in describing the lawyers of the latter time He says: `The lawyers of that time are the most evil of lawyers under the shadow of heaven: from them cometh forth mischief, and unto them it returneth.'
"And if any person deny these traditions, the establishing thereof is [incumbent] on this Servant; but since [Our] object is brevity therefore the detail of the authorities hath not been submitted.
"Those doctors who have indeed drunk of the cup of renunciation
never interfered with this Servant, even as the late