The two principles were Persons.  Ormazd was “the creator of life, the earthly and the spiritual,” he who “made the celestial bodies, earth, water, and trees.”  He was “good,” “holy,” “pure,” “true,” “the Holy God,” “the Holiest,” “the Essence of Truth,” “the father of all truth,” “the being best of all,” “the master of purity.”  He was supremely “happy,” being possessed of every blessing, “health, wealth, virtue, wisdom, immortality.”  From him came every good gift enjoyed by man; on the pious and the righteous he bestowed, not only earthly advantages, but precious spiritual gifts, truth, devotion, “the good mind,” and everlasting happiness; and, as he rewarded the good, so he also punished the bad, though this was an aspect in which he was but seldom represented.

While Ormazd, thus far, would seem to be a presentation of the Supreme Being in a form not greatly different from that wherein it has pleased him to reveal Himself to mankind through the Jewish and Christian scriptures, there are certain points of deficiency in the representation, which are rightly viewed as placing the Persian very considerably below the Jewish and Christian idea.  Besides the limitation on the power and freedom of Ormazd implied in the eternal co-existence with him of another and a hostile principle, he is also limited by the independent existence of space, time, and light, which appear in the Zenda vesta as “self-created,” or “without beginning,” and must therefore be regarded as “conditioning” the Supreme Being, who has to work, as best he may, under circumstances not caused by himself.  Again, Ormazd is not a purely spiritual being.  He is conceived of as possessing a sort of physical nature.  The “light,” which is one of his properties, seems to be a material radiance.  He can be spoken of as possessing health.  The whole conception of him, though not grossly material, is far from being wholly immaterial.  His nature is complex, not simple.  He may not have a body, in the ordinary sense of the word; but he is entangled with material accidents, and is far from answering to the pure spirit, “without body, parts, or passions,” which forms the Christian conception of the Deity.

Ahriman, the Evil Principle, is of course far more powerful and terrible than the Christian and Jewish Satan.  He is uncaused, co-eternal with Ormazd, engaged in a perpetual warfare with him.  Whatever good thing Ormazd creates, Ahriman corrupts and ruins it.  Moral and physical evils are alike at his disposal.  He blasts the earth with barrenness, or makes it produce thorns, thistles, and poisonous plants; his are the earthquake, the storm, the plague of hail, the thunderbolt; he causes disease and death, sweeps off a nation’s flocks and herds by murrain, or depopulates a continent by pestilence; ferocious wild beasts, serpents, toads, mice, hornets, mosquitoes, are his creation; he invented and introduced into the world the sins of witchcraft, murder, unbelief, cannibalism, sodomy; he excites wars and tumults, stirs up the bad against the good, and labors by every possible expedient to make vice triumph over virtue.  Ormazd can exercise no control over him; the utmost that he can do is to keep a perpetual watch on his rival, and seek to baffle and defeat him.  This he is not always able to do.  Despite his best endeavors, Ahriman is not unfrequently victorious.