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essence and purport of His compositions were the praises and
descriptions of that Reality soon to appear which was His only
object and aim, His darling, and His desire. (16) For He regarded
His own appearance as that of a harbinger of good tidings, and
considered His own real nature merely as a means for the
manifestation of the greater perfections of that One. And
indeed He ceased not from celebrating Him by night or day for
a single instant, but used to signify to all His followers that they
should expect His arising: in such wise that He declares in His
writings, "I am a letter out of that most mighty book and a
dewdrop from that limitless ocean, and, when He shall appear,
My true nature, My mysteries, riddles, and intimations
will become evident, and the embryo of this religion shall
develop through the grades of its being and ascent, attain to the
station of `the most comely of forms,' (17) and become adorned
with the robe of `blessed be God, the Best of Creators.' (18) And
this event will disclose itself in the year [A.H. one thousand two
hundred and] sixty-nine, (19) which corresponds to the number
of the year of `after a while,' and `thou shalt see the mountains
which thou thinkest so solid passing away like the passing of
the clouds' (20) shall be fulfilled." In short He so described Him
that, in His own expression, He regarded approach to the
divine bounty and attainment of the highest degrees of perfection
in the worlds of humanity as dependent on love for Him,
and so inflamed was He with His flame that commemoration
of Him was the bright candle of His dark nights in the fortress