Whatever, God, the wondrous Creator, brings forth from the hidden places of secrecy to the light of manifestation, is attended by extraordinary circumstances. But the sons of men fail to perceive these, from the heedlessness which has its props and foundation in fulness of life and the wrappage of worldliness. Were it not so, man would be ever standing at gaze and not applying himself to action. Hence the world-adorning Initiator hides most of the wonders of His power from the sight of mortals, but lest they should be entirely shut out from the extraordinary spectacle of the Divine decrees, He raises this veil from before a few of the holy hiding places of His secrets. And again, after much seeing, a heedlessness which fate has made a constituent of their natures, causes this very sight to become a screen against perception. And again* after that, the universal benevolence of the Deity, for a thousand diverse pur­poses—one being the instruction of the minds of negligent mortals,— brings forth a new creation, and raising the veils and curtains some­what, displays a wondrous picture.

The extraordinary story of her Majesty is a case in point. She was the happy-starred daughter (dukhtar-i-qudsī-akhtar) of Jūīna Bahādur of the Qiyāt tribe and Barlās* family. Her physical and* mental beauty went on increasing from her earliest years, until by loftiness of thought and sublimity of genius, she became the Unique of the Age, and by acknowledgment of friends and foes, rela­tives and strangers, was magnanimous, pious, and a lover of wisdom. The lights of theosophy shone from her countenance, the Divine secrets were manifested on her forehead. She sat secluded behind the screen of chastity and abode in the privy chamber of meditation on the Unity, was a theatre of holy epiphanies and an alighting-stage of Divine emanations. When she arrived at maturity, she was, according to the custom of princes and the practice of great ones of Church and State, given in marriage to Ẕūbūn Bīyān, king of Mughulistān and her own cousin and (thus) they joined that unique pearl of purity with a temporal ruler. As he was not her match, he hastened to annihilation and her Majesty Ālanquwā who was the repose (āsāyish) of the spiritual world, became likewise the ornament (ārāyish) of the temporal world and, applying herself of necessity to outward acts, she became the sovereign of her tribe (alūs).

One night this divinely radiant one was reposing on her bed, when suddenly a glorious* light cast a ray into the tent and entered the mouth and throat of that fount of spiritual knowledge and glory. The cupola of chastity became pregnant by that light in the same way as did her Majesty (Ḥaẓrat) Miryam* (Mary) the daughter of ‘Imrān (Amram).

Praised be the God who maintained holy human souls from Adam down to this child of light, in prosperity and adversity, abun­dance and want, victory and defeat, pleasure and pain, and other contrasted conditions, one after another, and made them partakers of emanations of the holy light. Before this holy light made its fortunate alighting from high heaven, Qiyān was withdrawn from the associations of climates and cities and supported in a solitary wilderness, and many ancestors were given to her (Ālanquwā), generation after generation, for two thousand years in these Highlands (kōhistān), thereby purifying her and familiarizing her with the land of holiness and converting the human element into a collection of all degrees, Divine and earthly. When the spiritual preparation was complete, Yuldūz Khān was brought—for the ends of Divine wisdom—from the mountains to the city, and seated on a throne, till the turn of the holy series reached her Majesty Ālanquwā and that divine light, after passing without human instrumentality, through many eminent saints and sovereigns, displayed itself gloriously in the external world. That day* (viz., of Ālanquwā's conception) was the beginning of the mani­festation of his Majesty, the king of kings, who after passing through divers stages was revealed to the world from the holy womb of her Majesty Miryam-makānī for the accomplishment of things visible and invisible.

It needs a Plato of abstract thought to comprehend the saying “The Lord* of Time (zamān) remains behind the veil whilst Time's products (zamāniyān), i.e., mortals, rend it with outward sorrow and inward anguish.”

But now returning to the beginning of the story, I repeat that the holy abode of that cupola of chastity was continually at auspi­cious times and seasons, made resplendent by the brilliance of that light and from time to time, her moral and material nature bright­ened by its effulgence. Those who by a soaring flight on the wings of genius, have passed beyond the worship of materiality and can behold the Causer, do not think occurrences like this strange or wonderful in the wide domain of Divine power, and the incredulity of worshippers of routine and superficiality is of no weight in their esteem. As for those who have remained among secondary causes and have not advanced their foot further and cannot, by auspicious guidance, forego superficial computations, they too do not abide by their first principles, (i.e., are not consistent). For instance they admit there was a child without father or mother, viz., the first man or Adam, and they accept a child without a mother, whom they call Eve. Why then not admit a child without a father? Especially when they are fully assured of such an occurrence in the case of Jesus and Mary.

Verse.

If you listen to the tale of Mary,
Believe the same of Ālanquwā.

But the world-fashioning Creator who from their inception brings all his works to their final accomplishment, effects His purposes by means of the contradictions and oppositions of His beautiful and His terrible Attributes (asmā, lit. names). Accordingly there is a section of mankind of lofty intelligence, right judgment, exalted thought, sublime power and correct thinking, whom He hath placed apart and whose condition He advances day by day. So also there is a multitude of human shapes, purblind, feeble of apprehension, crooked in thought and of evil imaginations, void of usefulness, whom He hath marked out and whom He keeps in a state of per­turbation. And although the cup of His designs may be filled in either of these ways, yet there are many contrivances involved in the combination. Accordingly darkness is united with light, bad fortune with good, adversity with prosperity and the wicked and black-hearted are always putting forward stones of stumbling. But soon they are disgraced spiritually and temporarily and depart to the street of annihilation.

This brilliant event is an illustration of the above, for when such a wondrous thing occurred, evil thoughts arose in the hearts of the short-sighted dullards and worshippers of externals who had no share in real merit and were alien from the grace of Divine knowledge. That enthroned vestal (Ālanquwā), out of her perfect benevolence, did not desire that these blind wretches should remain caught in the slough of this thought and so apprized her nobles of the matter. She intimated that “if any dullard or simpleton, unaware of the wondrous power of God and the forms of Divine decrees, fall into the misfortune of evil thoughts and sully his mind's mirror with the rust of wicked imagination, he will for ever and ever abide in distress and loss. It is better then that I clear the courts of their intellect of such confusion. For this purpose, it is necessary that awakened-hearted truth-knowers and trusty persons of sincerity watch by night around the tent, so that the darkness of suspicion and doubt caused by the blackness of their hearts may by the light of Divine events and the beholding of hidden radiances, be changed into illumination and that evil thoughts may pass from their turbid minds.”

Accordingly several wakeful and prudent, keen-sighted watchers were placed around the tent and like night-burning stars, they closed not their eyes. Suddenly in the middle of the night,—which is the time for the descent of Divine mercies,—a shining light, like bright moonlight,—just as the lady, the curtain of chastity, had said,— came down from on high and entered the tent. A cry was raised by the watchers. For a little while, people were stunned and then their vain thoughts and evil imaginations were exorcised.

When the period of pregnancy was fulfilled, Ālanquwā bore three noble sons. The first was Būqūn Qanqī from whom the Qanqīn tribe is descended; the second was Yūsuqī Sāljī from whom the Sāljīūts are sprung. The third was Būzanjar Qāān. The descendants of these nobly-born ones are called Nairūn, i.e., light-produced and are considered to be the noblest class among the Mughuls.