"Write!" it asked, "What shall I write, O my Lord?" The Most High answered, "Write those things which I have pre-determined for all creatures, till the day of the resurrection." The Pen at once carried out this Divine behest, writing first of all these words on the Preserved Tablet: "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate: I am God, beside whom there is no God, except myself; and Mohammed is my Apostle. Whoever yields himself up to my decrees, submits patiently to my adversities, is thankful for my favours, and agrees with my judgment, him I write down as a just one, and him will I raise up, on the day of the resurrection, amongst the just." According to another account, the Pen, on being commanded to write down all the things that are, and are to be, first wrote on the foot of the Throne: "There is no God but Allah: Mohammed is the Apostle of Allah" — and then wrote down the drops that were to descend from the sky, the leaves that were to fall from the trees, the pieces of stone on the face of the earth, all the plants that were ever to grow, and all the nourishment that was to be obtained by every creature.

'There are several different accounts of the creation of the Light of Mohammed. The sum and substance of them, as God knows best, amounts to this: Many thousands of years before the Lord Most High created heaven and earth, the upper and the lower Throne, the Tablet and the Pen, Paradise and Hell, the Angels, Men, and Genii, and the other creatures, He created the Light of that Excellency's prophetship, and trained it in the arena of the world of holiness, sometimes commanding it to prostrate itself in adoration, at other times employing it in praising and ascribing holiness. In the abode of this Light God created curtains, in each of which He kept it for a long space of time, and caused it to offer a special hymn of praise. When, after the lapse of a very long time, it came forth from these curtains, it breathed out after the manner of a lover, and from its blessed breath God created the spirits of the Prophets and Saints, and the spirits of the Righteous, the Martyrs, and the other Believers, and the spirits of the Angels. God also divided that blessed breath into several parts, creating out of one of them the upper and the lower

Throne, the Tablet, the Pen, Paradise, Heaven and Earth, Sunlight and Moonlight, the Stars, the Vapours, the Winds and the Mountains. After this, He spread out the earth, and divided heaven and earth into seven stories, appointing each of them as the abode of one class of creatures; and caused day and night to appear. Then he commanded Gabriel to go and fetch a handful of pure earth from the burying-place of his Excellency the Prophet, and to mix it with that Light. Gabriel did as he was commanded, by mixing up that Light with the pure earth, and made it into a dough, with water from the highest fountain, giving that dough the shape of a white pearl. This white pearl he flung into the rivers of Paradise, and presented it to the earths and to the skies, to the seas and to the mountains, so that they should know and understand who he (the Prophet) was, before he was created.

'It is recorded that Meiseret ul Fejr narrated as follows: I asked his Excellency the Prophet, "When didst thou become a Prophet?" and he replied to me thus, "When God created the great Throne, and expanded the heavens and the earths, and placed the great Throne upon the shoulders of the angels who are the bearers of the throne, He, by means of the Pen, wrote on the foot of the Throne, 'There is no God but Allah: Mohammed is the Apostle of Allah, and the seal of the prophets;' and He wrote and impressed my name upon the gates of Paradise, upon the leaves of the trees of Paradise, and upon its cupolas and tents, though at that time Adam was still between body and spirit, that is to say, no spirit was as yet dwelling in his body. After that, the Almighty created Adam, the pure, fully; and placed that Light on his forehead, saying, "O Adam, this Light which I have placed on thy forehead is the Light of the noblest and best of thy offspring, and of the Prince of the Prophets who are to be sent."

'It is also recorded that, in order to preserve and honour that Light, a formal promise was taken from Adam, that his children should not convey that Light to pure wives, without previous purification; and that the angels became witnesses to this covenant and that it was arranged that from every one of Adam's children, on whom that Light