light, _&c. and pretended that God dwelt in him. The
Learned among the_ Arabians _are not agreed, about the derivation
of the Word,_ Sufi,
Suphian. _It seems not to be known
among them till about the_ 200 _Year of the_ Hegira. _The most probable
Interpretation of it is from the Arabick word_ Sûph, _which
signifies_ Wool, _because those that followed this Sect refused to
wear Silk, and Cloathed themselves only with_ Wool. Dr. Pocock
_and_ Golius _follow this Interpretation; tho' the latter in his
Lexicon seems to doubt whether it is deriv'd from the [Greek: sophos]
or from the Arabick_ Sûph. _The Sultan of Persia is often call'd
the_ Sophy, _because_ Ismaël _the first Sultan of that Family
now in_ Persia _who began to Reign in the 605 Year of
the_ Hegira, _that is of our Lord the_ 1554/5 _was of this Sect._ viz,
Sufi, a Suphian.]

[Footnote 17: _The word which I have here rendred_ Starlight, _is_ Zohal _in
Arabick which signifies_ Saturn. _'Tis a common way with
the Arabian Authors, when they intend to shew a vast disproportion
between things, to compare the greater to the_ Sun _and the
lesser to_ Saturn. _The meaning of this Distich, is that there is as
much difference between what a Man knows by hearsay, or what
notions he imbibes in his Education, and what he knows when he
comes to examin things to the bottom, and know them experimentally,
as there is between Twilight and Noonday_.]


* * * * *