The Book of Akbar 189: CHAPTER XXVIII.

189

opened his wondrous mouth to comfort Jīji Anaga’s afflicted heart. “Be of good cheer,” he said, “for the celestial light of the khilāfat shall abide in thy bosom and shall bestow on the night of thy sorrow the effulgence of joy. But see that thou reveal this our secret to no one, and that thou dost not proclaim untimely this mystery of God’s power, for hidden designs and great previsions are infolded therein.” Jīji Anaga declared, “This life-fraught intimation brought me into rapture, and sorrow’s knot was at once loosed from off my heart. This portent which gave me from the eternal throne the sole and undisputed charge of a child of light, expanded my heart, one becoming a hundred and a hundred a thousand. Day by day the doors of joy and gladness opened wider and wider before me, and having established myself on thanksgiving for this great blessing, I addressed myself to my duties, heart and soul. The glory and dominion of two worlds were revealed to me. But I kept this mystery sealed up till that nursling of dominion became the throne-adorner of the regions of world-conquest. One day he had gone forth from Dihlī to hunt in the district of Pālam, and there an enormous and terrific serpent, such as might move the heart of the daring, appeared on the line of road. On this occasion his Majesty exhibited the miracle of Moses, and without the hesitation, which comes even to generous hearts, put forth his white hand and approaching the serpent, courageously and in the strength of a sacred intimation, seized its tail with his holy hand and quelled it. Yūsuf Muhammad Khān, brother of Mirzā ‘Azīz Kokaltāsh beheld this token of power and in his astonishment came and told me. On that occasion I told my dear son that sealed and hidden-away mystery which I myself had seen and heard, and said, ‘His Majesty did that wonderful thing in his tender years, ’tis not strange if in his maturity he has performed this miracle, for every act hath its time and every speech its season. The reason of my not mentioning this marvel till this point is that no one to whom I told it, would have believed it, but on the contrary would have taxed me with weakness of intellect. The taste of such a story would have been bitter to their wishes’ palate. Moreover I was not at liberty to reveal it. Now, my son, that I have heard from you the story of the serpent, I have opened my lips to tell of the mystery which marked his tender years, while the other is a sample of his riper age. My honoured son! in that exhibitor of miracles such indications and stages of development ('alamdt u maqdmdt) are not surprising.” Though Abu'l-fazl, the composer of this noble record had heard these two anecdotes from a person of veracity, yet he also received them direct from that receptacle of chastity (Jījī Anaga). But what the writer has seen with his own eyes and has understood by his own contemplation, concerning the perfections and miracles of this nursling of Divine light, exceeds mortal conjecture and human comprehension. In truth what was recounted by the venerable mother of M. 'Aziz Koka is astonishing to the exoteric (aṣḥāb-i-ẓāhir), but what this humble one hath witnessed is awe-augmenting to the esoteric (arbāb-i-bāṭin).