The Book of Akbar 228.3

228.3

It occurred to his Majesty Jahanbani that he should make manifest to great and small the touchstone-capability ('iyar-i-danish) of the Shahinshah, from whose brow there streamed while yet of tender years, thousands of rays of light divine. He therefore arranged a princely festival in the pavilions of chastity. All the great ladies attended in the gynaeceum. For the instruction of the spectators his Majesty the Shahinshah was brought in on the shoulder of respect and placed on the auspicious Divan, and in conformity with orders her Majesty Mariam-Makani entered in the train of the other ladies, and without being distinguished in any way. The design of the king was that the prince (lit. the light of the eye-pupil of the Sultanate) should single out his honoured mother from the crowd of ladies. By light divine his Majesty, without difficulty, hesitation, or mistake, and in virtue of his abiding intelligence and innate discernment took refuge with his saintly mother, and put himself into her arms. On beholding this glorious act—surprising to the minds of the superficial and to persons who are swayed by what is usual—a shout arose among the spectators, and they recognised the power of the eternally-nourished one, and prodigy of fate's worship. All perceived that this was not the work of the bodily senses which put a difference between childhood and adolescence. Rather it was nought but spiritual intuition and Divine teaching.