The Dabistan

145

deeds of wonderful purity proceed from them; and
In this production there is no need of a motion, nor
of an instrument, in like manner as in the forth-
coming of a work of God his will is sufficient. This
meaning has been made intelligible to the under-
standing of the vulgar by saying, that an angel with
feathered wings traversed the distance of a road
which could not be travelled over in a thousand
years. They say also that Israfil is one of the powers
of the sun; the angel of death proceeds from Saturn;
Mikail from the moon; and Jebriil emanated from
the tenth power of intelligence. As often as, on
account of the revolution of the heavens or the mo-
tion of the stars, something suitable manifests itself
in the elemental matter, compounded and uncom-
pounded, it issues into existence by way of emana-
tion from the superior wisdom; and the revelation
of the prophet, and the instruction of the perfect to
mankind, takes place by the intervention of the last-
mentioned angel. On that account there is an in-
trinsic connexion between the souls of the prophets
and this by-standing angel. According to the Eas-
tern philosophers, Jabriil is a god of a kind similar
to human nature, and called in Persian Wakhshur,
" prophet/' and Serosh pajdm sipdr, " Serosh, the
" message-bringer." In the opinion of the philo-
sophers, the crystalline heaven is the ninth heaven,
and the heaven of the fixed stars the throne of God.

10