It is given neither in the Babi nor in the Muslim histories of
this period. But it forms a part of a good oral tradition, and it may
supply the key to those words of the Bab in his letter to Muhammad
Shah: [Footnote: Ibid. pp. 249, 250.] 'Finally, the Sultan
[i.e. the Shah] ordered that I should journey towards Maku without
giving me a horse that I could ride.' We learn from the legend that an
officer of the Shah did call upon the Bab to ride a horse which was
too vicious for any ordinary person to mount. Whether this officer was
really (as the legend states) 'Ali Khan, the warden of Maku, who
wished to test the claims of 'Ali Muhammad by offering him a vicious
young horse and watching to see whether 'Ali Muhammad or the horse
would be victorious, is not of supreme importance. What does concern
us is that many of the people believed that by a virtue which resided
in the Bab it was possible for him to soothe the sensitive nerves of
a horse, so that it could be ridden without injury to the rider.

There is no doubt, however, that 'Ali Khan, the warden of the
fortress, was one of that multitude of persons who were so thrilled by
the Bab's countenance and bearing that they were almost prompted
thereby to become disciples. It is highly probable, too, that just now
there was a heightening of the divine expression on that unworldly
face, derived from an intensification of the inner life. In earlier
times 'Ali Muhammad had avoided claiming Mahdiship (Messiahship)
publicly; to the people at large he was not represented as the
manifested Twelfth Imam, but only as the Gate, or means of access to
that more than human, still existent being. To disciples of a higher
order 'Ali Muhammad no doubt disclosed himself as he really was,
but, like a heavenly statesman, he avoided inopportune self-revelations.
Now, however, the religious conditions were becoming different. Owing
in some cases to the indiscretion of disciples, in others to a craving