One of the ennobling events in the Shāhinshāh's fortune which in this year applied collyrium to the eyes of the simple-minded aspirants after auspiciousness was that Cunār, which is an impreg­nable fortress, came into the possession of the imperial servants. Certainly it has seldom come into the hands of princes by force of arms or by abundance of stratagem. For on account of its height and strength the hand of the external foe cannot reach it, and owing to plenty of food and water those inside are not dependent on the outer world. The brief account of this event is that when 'Adilī's son became a vagrant in the wilderness of ruin the fort of Cunār, which had been his abode, came into the hands of one Fattū* who belonged to his clan (khāṣa khel). He regarded this inaccessible fort as his refuge and laboured to strengthen it. When the standards of fortune returned from the town of Karra and were set down at Agra, Khwāja 'Abdul Majīd Āṣaf Khān was appointed to take the fort. As Fattū had some proper feelings, and some good sense he per­ceived that the day of the Afghans' defeat had arrived, and so sent a number of people to express his submissiveness. He humbly represented to the world-protecting court that if Shaikh* Muḥammad were to take him by the hand and bring him to kiss the threshold of fortune he would assuredly deliver the fort with a contented mind to the imperial servants and would bind himself to the saddle-straps of the Shāhinshāh's fortune. His petition was accepted and the Shaikh went, in accordance with a lofty command, and brought him by princely kindnesses to perform homage. The forehead of his auspiciousness was brightened by his prostrating himself at the court of the refuge of the world. His Majesty exalted him by favours and gave him the rank of an Amīr. Ḥasan 'Alī Khān Turkaman was appointed to the charge of the fortress.

Among the occurrences of this time was His Majesty the Shāh­inshāh's mounting the elephant Hawāī and engaging it in a fight. The life-giving and world-adorning Creator was daily exalting his degrees of greatness by new methods and new lights and was mak­ing the spiritual and physical perfections of this sole one of unity's Court perceptible to the superficial and short-sighted. The Age's Khedive was contented with rendering thanks inwardly and con­tinued to wear a veil over his actions. Whenever owing to a Divine decree a veil might be removed from his world-adorning beauty, His Majesty by the might of his own far-seeing meditation fashioned some other yet more beautiful and wonderful veils. He was at once a spectator of the system of Divine decrees, and an administrator of the world according to the best laws. Secretly he was testing the sincerity, the large-mindedness, and business-capabilities of men; ostensibly, he was prosecuting hunting and elephant-fights which the ignorant regard as a kind of neglect of the duties of sovereignty, but which the wise regard as the cream of practical skill. In those very amusements which led the superficial into this error there appeared certain actions which involuntarily brought such superficial­ists into the highway of devotion and made them travellers on the path of true knowledge. Among them is the following extraordi­nary occurrence. The story of this instructive affair, and of this opener of reason's ear is as follows. The elephant Hawāī* was a mighty animal and reckoned among the special elephants. In choler, passionateness, fierceness and wickedness he was a match for the world. Strong and experienced drivers who had spent a long life in riding similar elephants mounted him with difficulty, so what could they do in the way of making him fight? That royal cavalier of bravery's plain and tiger-hunter of audacity's forest one day with­out hesitation mounted this elephant, in the very height of its ferocity, on the polo-ground which he had made for his pleasure outside of the fort of Agra, and executed wonderful manœuvres. After that he pitted him against the elephant Ran Bāgha which nearly approached him in his qualities. The loyal and the experienced who were present were in a state such as had never happened to them before.

As the courtiers who were witnesses of this dangerous scene were disturbed by its continuance and were unable to remonstrate, it all at once, occurred to them that a remedy might be found if the Ataga Khān who was the prime minister were brought, and if he by prayers and entreaties could withdraw His Majesty from this dread­ful occupation, the contemplation of which turned the gall-bladder of the lion-hearted to water. When the distracted Ataga Khān arrived and saw the state of affairs he dropped from his hand the thread of endurance and bared his head. He cried and lamented like oppressed suppliants for justice. Great and small raised hands of entreaty and implored from God the safety of that sacred person which is the principle of peace and tranquillity for mankind. When His Majesty perceived the Ataga Khān's perturbation he said to him, “You must not make all this lamentation, and if you don't stop I'll at once throw myself down from the elephant.” When the Ataga Khān saw that His Majesty was bent upon the business he at once obeyed and from deference outwardly composed his agitated mind. The lion-hearted Shāhinshāh calmly went on with his terri­fying pursuit until the elephant Hawāī by the strength of a hidden arm, and the Divine fortune, got the victory over his opponent. Ran Bāgha let fall the strong cable of steadfastness and turned to flee. Hawāī looked neither behind nor before and disregarded heights and hollows and went like the wind in pursuit of the fugitive. His Majesty, a rock of firmness, continued to sit steadily and to watch the ways of destiny. After running a long way the elephant came to the edge of the river Jamna, and to the head of the great bridge of boats. Ran Bāgha in his confusion went on to the bridge, and Hawāi with the tiger of fortune's jungle on his back came upon the bridge behind him. Owing to the great weight of those two moun­tain-forms the pontoons were sometimes submerged and sometimes lifted up. The royal servants flung themselves into the water on both sides of the bridge and went on swimming until* the elephants had traversed the whole of the bridge and got to the other side. At this time when the spectators were looking on at the wonderful affair, the Khedive of the age in a moment restrained Hawāī who was like fire in disposition and like wind in swiftness. Ran Bāgha ran off, carrying his life. New life, too, came to the world and distraught hearts were composed. Some short-thoughted, short-sighted ones imagined that perhaps there was some drunkenness in the brain of the Ruler of time and terrestrials, and that this performance was the result thereof. They immediately recoiled from this baseless idea and per­ceived that His Majesty was a wondrous portrayer of the arts of reason who was bringing into evidence a specimen from the wondrous inner gallery and was summoning the astray in the wilderness of ignorance to the king's highway of knowledge. He was giving eyes to the blind, and was anointing the eyes of the seeing with impearled* collyrium. Several times when this fortunate writer has had the privilege of private conversation with His Majesty the Shāhinshāh he has heard from his holy lips that “our knowingly and intention­ally mounting on mast, murderous elephants when they have a moment previously brought their drivers under their feet and killed them, and when they have slain many a man, has this for its cause and motive that if I have knowingly taken a step which is displeas­ing to God or have knowingly made an aspiration which was not according to His pleasure, may that elephant finish us, for we cannot support the burden of life under God's displeasure.” Good God, what an insight is this! and what a calculation with oneself! In fine, at all times, whether that of holy privacy, or that of engrossment in business, in time of battle, and in time of banquet, he is ever regard­ful of the real, guiding thread, and while he is outwardly with the creature, and inwardly with the Creator, he is at one and the same moment the arranger of the sections of the outward and inward and acts as the leader of both those great parties, and while deriving pleasure from both of those pleasant products adorns the throne both of the spiritual and the temporal universe.

Among the events was Adham Khān's arrival at Court. At the time when Agra was being made illustrious by the Shāhinshāh's presence, the idea took shape in the world-adorning mirror of his mind that the government of Malwa should be committed to Pīr Muḥam­mad Khān Shirwānī, and that Adham Khān should do service at Court. Orders were issued to this effect and Adham Khān obeyed them and proceeded thither, after making over Malwa to Pīr Muḥammad Khān. He travelled rapidly and soon arrived, and was the recipient of royal favours. Māham Anaga's heart, which was distressed by the separation from her honoured son, was thereby comforted, while Pīr Muḥammad Khān was relieved of the burden of a colleague, and realised his hopes, and the people generally of Malwa were freed from injustice and gained peace and tranquillity. Adham Khān too was restrained from folly and thus guarded against destruction. Furthermore the determination to improve him became fixed in the holy mind. At this time the lord of the universe in accordance with his noble ways was continually outwardly engaged in hunting while inwardly he walked with God and was employed in the capturing of souls. He laid grand foundations for every work, and arranged good regulations in matters of administration. In spite of his youth which is a time when most rulers follow their inclinations without self-introspection, His Majesty made his prime years a means of acquiring Divine knowledge, and was never for a moment neglectful of this. Prosperity, enthronisation, the cherish­ing of friends, and the consuming of enemies, every one of which was a sense-robbing cup for former princes or rather a drinking to the lees of infatuation, became in the holy personality of His Majesty the Shāhinshāh a cause of increased knowledge, of augmented wisdom, of abundant prudence and watchfulness. In virtue of the Divine purposes, and the irresistible decrees of the incomparable Deity, many of the world-adorning excellencies of this spiritual and temporal prince were concealed even from his own acuteness. I have heard this many times in the days of my childhood from my honoured father when I was engaged in acquiring knowledge. He (too) was a fountain of blessings and an assemblage of spiritual and material perfections and one who spent his days in the hermitage of retire­ment. And I learnt this also by myself when I came to have the bliss of serving him who is the elixir of the capabilities of the masters of wisdom. By reason of this fact, to wit, that his world-illuminating spiritual beauty was hidden from himself, he would seek from others what he should have sought for in himself and which he should have brought for the use of mankind and so been a guide to those wandering in the wilderness of error. Continually he made the pain of seeking after God, which is also capable of becoming perfect health, the hem of his heart, and kept the mobility of his holy soul. Hunting, which is a bracelet on the arm of joy, was made by him a constituent of the pain of search and made him tra­verse alone city and country. In his abundant carefulness he sought for truth among the dust-stained denizens of the fields of irreflec­tion—and most of the really great study it under this disguise— and consorted with every sort of wearers of patched garments such as jogis, sanyāsīs and qalandars, and other solitary sitters in the dust, and insouciant recluses. From their outward ways and conversation he got at their real natures. Similarly he inquired after the Truth from the learned, and the distinguished who were bound by the chain of science and reputation, and who trick out the petty shops of schools and colleges. He recognised the adul­terateness and false metal of the impostors among these classes but infolded these things in his own wide capacity. He put the dust of concealment over those deceitful Satans and did not lay bare the reputation of those ministers of the truth. In spite of these results there was no falling-off or slackening in this world-king's quest. Rather he increased his endeavours and was more restless than ever in his search for physicians of the soul who might be guides on the path of attainment.