springs from an endeavour to minimize the materialism of the myth of
the Divine Dwelling-place. That ancient myth asserted that the
earth-mountain was the Divine Throne. Not so, said an early school of
Theosophy, God, i.e. the God who has a bodily form and manifests the
hidden glory, dwells on a point in the extreme north, called by the
Babylonians 'the heaven of Anu.'

The Point, however, i.e. the God of the Point, may also be
entitled 'The Gate,' i.e. the Avenue to God in all His various
aspects. To be the Point, therefore, is also to be the Gate. 'Ali, the
cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was not only the Gate of the City
of Knowledge, but, according to words assigned to him in a
_hadith_, 'the guardian of the treasures of secrets and of the
purposes of God.' [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 142.]

It is also in a book written at Maku--the Persian Bayan--that the
Bab constantly refers to a subsequent far greater Person, called 'He
whom God will make manifest.' Altogether the harvest of sacred
literature at this mountain-fortress was a rich one. But let us now
pass on with the Bab to Chihrik--a miserable spot, but not so
remote as Maku (it was two days' journey from Urumiyya). As
Subh-i-Ezel tells us, 'The place of his captivity was a house
without windows and with a doorway of bare bricks,' and adds that 'at
night they would leave him without a lamp, treating him with the
utmost lack of respect.' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 403.] In the
Persian manner the Bab himself indicated this by calling Maku 'the
Open Mountain,' and Chihrik 'the Grievous Mountain.' [Footnote:
Cp. _TN_, p. 276.] Stringent orders were issued making it
difficult for friends of the Beloved Master to see him; and it may be
that in the latter part of his sojourn the royal orders were more