44 If thou be of the inmates of this city within the ocean of divine unity, thou wilt view all the Prophets and Messengers of God as one soul and one body, as one light and one spirit, in such wise that the first among them would be last and the last would be first.  For they have all arisen to proclaim His Cause and have established the laws of divine wisdom.  They are, one and all, the Manifestations of His Self, the Repositories of His might, the Treasuries of His Revelation, the Dawning-Places of His splendour, and the Daysprings of His light.  Through them are manifested the signs of sanctity in the realities of all things and the tokens of oneness in the essences of all beings.  Through them are revealed the elements of glorification in the heavenly realities and the exponents of praise in the eternal essences.  From them hath all creation proceeded and unto them shall return all that hath been mentioned.  And since in their inmost Beings they are the same Luminaries and the self-same Mysteries, thou shouldst view their outward conditions in the same light, that thou mayest recognize them all as one Being, nay, find them united in their words, speech, and utterance.

45 Wert thou to consider in this station the last of them to be the first, or conversely, thou wouldst indeed be speaking the truth, as hath been ordained by Him Who is the Wellspring of Divinity and the Source of Lordship:  “Say:  Call upon God or call upon the All-Merciful:  by whichsoever name ye will, invoke him, for He hath most excellent names."(32) For they are all the Manifestations of the name of God, the Dawning-Places of His attributes, the Repositories of His might, and the Focal Points of His sovereignty, whilst God—­magnified be His might and glory—­is in His Essence sanctified above all names and exalted beyond even the loftiest attributes.  Consider likewise the evidences of divine omnipotence both in their Souls and in their human Temples, that thine heart may be assured and that thou mayest be of them that speed through the realms of His nearness.

46 I shall restate here My theme, that perchance this may assist thee in recognizing thy Creator.  Know thou that God—­exalted and glorified be He—­ doth in no wise manifest His inmost Essence and Reality.  From time immemorial He hath been veiled in the eternity of His Essence and concealed in the infinitude of His own Being.  And when He purposed to manifest His beauty in the kingdom of names and to reveal His glory in the realm of attributes, He brought forth His Prophets from the invisible plane to the visible, that His name “the Manifest” might be distinguished from “the Hidden” and His name “the Last” might be discerned from “the First”, and that there may be fulfilled the words:  “He is the First and the Last; the Seen and the Hidden; and He knoweth all things!"(33) Thus hath He revealed these most excellent names and most exalted words in the Manifestations of His Self and the Mirrors of His Being.