Among these early effusions of the Pen of Glory is a lengthy Arabic
epistle known as the Javáhiru’l-Asrár, meaning literally the “gems” or
“essences” of mysteries. A number of themes it enunciates are also
elaborated in Persian—through different revelatory modes—in the Seven
Valleys and the Book of Certitude, those two immortal volumes which Shoghi
Effendi has characterized, respectively, as Bahá’u’lláh’s greatest
mystical composition and His pre-eminent doctrinal work. Undoubtedly the
Gems of Divine Mysteries figures among those “Tablets revealed in the
Arabic tongue” which were referred to in the latter volume.(2)

One of the central themes of the book, Bahá’u’lláh indicates, is that of
“transformation”, meaning here the return of the Promised One in a
different human guise. Indeed, in a prefatory note written above the
opening lines of the original manuscript, Bahá’u’lláh states:

This treatise was written in reply to a seeker who had asked how the
promised Mihdí could have become transformed into ‘Alí-Muḥammad (the Báb).
The opportunity provided by this question was seized to elaborate on a
number of subjects, all of which are of use and benefit both to them that
seek and to those who have attained, could ye perceive with the eye of
divine virtue.

The seeker alluded to in the above passage was Siyyid Yúsuf-i-Sihdihí
Iṣfáhání, who at the time was residing in Karbilá. His questions were
presented to Bahá’u’lláh through an intermediary, and this Tablet was
revealed in response on the same day.

A number of other important themes are addressed in this work as well: the
cause of the rejection of the Prophets of the past; the danger of a