[The following supplementary notes from The Series of 28 Letters may prove both instructive and interesting.—Trs.]

You say you hear certain words, but not from the organ of speech, or through the organ of sound. Speech and Sound belong to this world: what you hear belongs to Malakût—Loc. cit. Letter 10.

A pilgrim may hear the ‘sound’ in his body, nay, in the minerals, plants, and animals. But if he hears from them the same Zikr (i e., the sacred formula) as practised by him, it is but an echo of his practice—an imaginary phenomenon, not a real one: whereas, if he hears from them the Zikr peculiar to them, the phenomenon is real . . . . . The universe being endless, the phenomena are endless.—Ibid, Letter 15.

Powers and phenomena are trials for a pilgrim. Regard them as obstacles, and never care for them. . . . It is a rare boon to pass from the Name to the Named … The Vision of the Prophet Khezar foretells your success on the Path … The odours, sacred and unearthly, experienced by you, pertain to the Malakût: how can you find their likeness on earth?—Ibid, Letter 16.