# Tablet of the Holy Mariner

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet of the Holy Mariner, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Tablet of the Holy Mariner
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh
> 
> Juan Cole, translator
> 
> 1999
> 
> 1. Persian section
> Provisional translation by Juan Cole
> 
> Tablet of the Holy Mariner (Persian)
> 
> He is the Foreigner, the Persian, the Iraqi.
> 
> When the passengers on the divine ark had clung to one
> of the names, with the permission of the holy mariner in the pre-existent
> vessel, then did it set sail upon the sea of names. They traversed the stations
> of limitation, so that they might make for the Yemen of the powerful sovereign
> of oneness, arriving at the shore of divine unity. Thus might they drink from
> the chalice of transcendence. Indeed, by the aid of the lord, that eternal
> ark set sail upon and plied the spiritual waters of wisdom.
> 
> Then they reached a place where the name, the Still,
> became dominant over their course, so that the ship of the spirit was becalmed,
> unable to move. At that moment, the impregnable command of the lord descended
> from the holy and everlasting heavens. The mariner of eternity was ordered
> to teach a single letter of the hidden word to the people of the ark. Thus
> did they, by the succor of the Unseen, pass through the valley of psychological
> bewilderment and arrive at the great court of spiritual unity, attaining the
> Mount Qaf of eternal life and the presence of the lord of souls. When the
> people of the ship attained to the word of the spiritual friend, they were
> immediately filled with meaning and soared into the sacred sky. By the divine
> grace and mercy, they passed beyond the peaks of carnal desire and the deepest
> levels of negligence and blindness. At that moment the breezes of paradise
> wafted upon their bodies from the sanctuary of the All Merciful. After they
> soared in the heavens of divine nearness, they traversed the spiritual stations
> in the place of safety and security. Finally, they halted at the homeland
> of lovers. The inhabitants of this station arose to serve them and show them
> kindness. The immortal attendants and the holy servers poured ruby wine liberally.
> Intoxication with the wine of divine knowledge, and the cup of eternal wisdom
> induced such love and distraction that they escaped from their own being and
> that of existing things. They gave their hearts to the beauty of the friend.
> For ages and centuries they settled and dwelt in that pleasant and spiritual
> station, in that divine and holy rose garden, with perfect joy and happiness.
> 
> Then the gales of divine tests and the winds of lordly
> temptation blew from the Sheba of the everlasting Cause. They became distracted
> by the beauty of the wine server and grew heedless of the immortal countenance,
> to the extent that they imagined the shadow to be the sun and phantoms to
> be light. They set out for the ladders of the greatest name so that they might
> scale those heavens and arrive at that seat and place. When they rose toward
> it, the divine assayers descended upon them with the sacred touchstone, by
> the irresistible decree of the lord. When these emissaries did not perceive
> the scent of the spiritual youth, they forbade entry to all. Afterwards, there
> occurred what is inscribed upon the guarded tablet.
> 
> Then, you who dwell upon the plain of divine love and
> drink the wine of unceasing forgiveness, do not exchange nearness to the beauty
> of the friend for both worlds. Do not prefer the presence of the wine server
> to meeting him, and do not give your heart to the intoxicant of ignorance
> and heedlessness in preference to his wine of knowledge and wisdom. Lips are
> for mentioning the beloved; do not defile them with filthy water. The heart
> is the home of everlasting mysteries, do not busy it with perishable things.
> Seek the water of life from the fountain of the beauty of the All-Praised,
> not from the manifestations of Satan.
> 
> Yes, this ephemeral youth here mentions the highest station
> of the love of the divine friends. He does so by reference to the wonders
> of the text of divine unity and the gems of the wisdom of the self-sufficient
> sovereign. Thus, perhaps some might recognize the value of courage and gallantry,
> and put off the shirt of negligence and carnal appetites. Perhaps they will
> visit the illumined beauty of the pure, radiant and sanctified friend in the
> land of love, detachment, amiability and exaltation. Thus would they receive
> the lights dawning from the morn of his brow and the effulgence of the perspicuous
> day, to at least the extent that they would be enabled to unite their inner
> and outer selves. We have passed beyond the loftiness of abstraction, the
> sublimity of divine oneness, the ultimate recognition that God is above all
> attributes, and the most great sanctification. Now, they must put forth their
> utmost effort and give their unswerving attention, so that their inward secrets
> not be contrary to their overt behavior, nor their outward deeds at variance
> with their inner mysteries. We have traversed the stage of expending the self
> for others. Arise to expend justice and fairness upon the souls that pertain
> to you.
> 
> In the end, however, you prefer the cloak of carnal longing
> and desire to the robe of divine benediction, and you exchange the song of
> the nightingale of immortality for the disagreeable croaking of death that
> issues from the throats of the hateful and rebellious. How miserable a trade
> you make! We are from God and to him do we return. God willing, we maintain
> the hope that the immortal temples of glory shall, through the adornment of
> holiness and the divine attributes, appear illumined, gentle, pure and undefiled
> like the eternal sun. This is not difficult for God.
> 
> 2. Arabic section
> Provisional translation by Juan Cole
> 
> Tablet of the Holy Mariner (Arabic)
> 
> He is the Precious, the Beloved.
> 
> Holy mariner, bring the ship of immortality to the celestial
> concourse.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Moor it on the sea of pre-existence by means of a new name.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then board upon it the temples of the spirit in the name of
> God, the exalted, the most high.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Weigh anchor so that it can ply the ocean of grandeur and deliver
> its passengers to the precincts of nearness in the sanctuary of eternity.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Behold, you have brought them to the sacred shore, the beach
> of the crimson sea.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then disembark them from the ship in this ethereal and most
> hidden station.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> This is a station, wherein God showed forth the fire of beauty
> in the everlasting bush.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Therein the temples of the Cause put off the sandals of carnal
> desire.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Therein the Moses of grandeur circles with the hosts of eternity.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> This is a station, wherein the hand of God was drawn forth from
> the cloak of grandeur.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> This is a station, wherein the ship of the Cause shall never
> move, even though all the divine names be recited to it.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then, holy mariner, teach the passengers on the ship what we
> taught you behind the cloud of unknowability--
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious--
> 
> lest they become idled in the valley of the white dune.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> And so that they might fly with the wings of spirit to the station
> that God has sanctified above mention in the kingdoms of creation--
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious
> 
> and might move through the sky like birds of nearness in the
> realm of the divine presence
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious
> 
> and learn the mysteries concealed within the waves of light.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> They traversed the way-stations of worldly limitations, until
> they arrived at the station of divine unity in the center of guidance.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> They desired to ascend to a station that God ordained to be
> above their ranks, when the luminous comet expelled them from among the inhabitants
> of the kingdom of his presence.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> They heard the melodies of greatness from behind the pavilions
> of the Unseen in the sublime sanctuary.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Guardian angels, return them to their places in the realm of
> humanity.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> For they desired to fly into that heaven to which the wings
> of the dove never attained.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Nor will the ships of mere conjecture or the hearts of those
> endued with intellect ever stir therein.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Behold, the houri of the spirit looked out from the most exalted
> chamber.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> She arched her eyebrow toward the concourse of holiness.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> The lights of her forehead shone from the earth to the sky.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> The radiance of her beauty fell upon the people of the earth
> and clay. Then, suddenly, the bodies of being shuddered forth from the graves
> of annihilation.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then she called out with a melody that the ear of hearing had
> never experienced from pre-existent eternity.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> She said, "By God, those who do not have in their hearts
> the breezes of love that waft from the radiant `Iraqi youth"
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious
> 
> "shall never be able to ascend to the heights of the unknowable
> essence in this remotest realm."
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Behold, she commanded one of her most beautiful slave girls
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious--
> 
> saying, "Descend from the palaces of immortality in the
> form of a sun in this void"
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious--
> 
> "then turn your attention to them, insofar as they have
> imprisoned him within their hidden, inmost souls"
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious--
> 
> "and if you smell the fragrance of the coat of the youth
> who was concealed within pavilions of light by the wicked"
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious
> 
> "then cry out within yourself so that all the embodiments
> of wealth who inhabit the chambers of paradise may be informed thereof."
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> "Thus might all of them descend from the chambers of immortality"
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious
> 
> "and kiss their hands and feet insofar as these had soared
> into the heavens of faithfulness."
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> "Perhaps you will discover the scent of the beloved on
> their shirts."
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then the houri of nearness dawned from the horizon of the chambers,
> just as the visage of the youth rises above his robe.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> She descended with an ornament that illumined the heavens and
> all that is in them.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then she moved in the air so that she perfumed all things in
> the lands of holiness and sublimity.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> When she arrived at that station, she arose like the meridian
> along the pole of creation.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> She inhaled their scent at that time when there was neither
> beginning nor end.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> She did not discover in them what she desired, and this is an
> amazing tale!
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then she shrieked, and wailed, and returned to her place in
> her crimson palace.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then she spoke a secret word beneath her spiritual breath.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> She called out among the celestial concourse and the houris
> of eternity.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> By God, she did not perceive from those idle claimants the breezes
> of fidelity.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> By God, the youth remained in the land of exile, single and
> alone in the hands of the godless.
> 
> Praised be my Lord in the divine realm of
> sorrow.
> 
> Thereafter she wailed within herself in a lamentation that shook
> the concourse on high and set them to shrieking.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, who clad himself in vestments
> of black.
> 
> She fell upon the earth and died, as though she had been called,
> and had answered the one who called her in the divine realm beyond all knowing.
> Praised be the one who created her from the essence of chaste modesty.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> Then suddenly those houris came outside, who had never been
> glimpsed by anyone from among the people of the sublime garden.
> 
> Praised be my Lord, the most glorious.
> 
> They gathered around her, discovering her body outstretched
> upon the dust.
> 
> Praised be our Lord, the most high.
> 
> When they witnessed her condition and learned a single letter
> of the tales of the youth, they bared their heads, rent their veils, slapped
> their own faces, put away all frivolity, wept with their eyes, and struck
> their cheeks with their hands. These are among the secret and most hidden
> calamities.
> 
> Praised be our Lord, the exalted, the most
> high.
> 
> 3. Original text
> 
> Lawh Mallah al-Quds (Tablet of the Holy Mariner: Arabic and Persian Versions). Written by Bahá'u'lláh 26 March, 1863 (the "fifth day of Naw-Ruz") at Mazra`at al-Washshash outside Baghdad. Version A below (Arabic only) is a single-page manuscript said to be in the hand of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Version B (Arabic and Persian) is from `Abdu'l-Hamid Ishraq-Khavari, ed., Ma'idih-i Asmani, Vol. 4 (Tehran: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1973/129 B.E.), pp. 335-341.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1) From Sen McGlinn's "Leiden List":
> 
> Arabic section translated Shoghi Effendi and published in many sources, including
> Prayers for Special Occasions (=Bahá'í Prayers, British) 51-7; MacEoin, 'Rituals'
> 127-8; as a separate publication see Collins 1.128-9 and references there.
> Earlier translation in SoW XIII: 4, pp. 75-77 contains misprints.
> 
> Persian section: draft translation by Shahroakh Monjazeb at 1996 ABS Edmonton(?).
> 
> Mention in Selections from the Writings of Abdul-Baha para. 233 (p. 314);
> discussion God Passes By 147-48; mention ibid. 140; discussion in Taherzadeh,
> 'Revelation' vol.1 228-243 with full translation of Arabic section; mention
> ibid vol. 2 6; full treatment in Michael Sours 'Beyond the Mystic Veil' (as
> yet unpublished); Walbridge, 'Sacred' 159-165, 234; Hatcher, 'Ocean' 39, 49-51,
> 88-96, 135-137; discussion of historical context John Hatcher 'an Historical-Critical
> Approach' in SBBR vol. 3 41-42; Balyuzi, 'King' 154; brief discussion Taherzadeh,
> 'Covenant' 167-68. Discussions of the role of the Maiden in Kamran Ekbal 'The
> Zoroastrian Heritage' in SBBR vol. 3 155-56; Ross Woodman 'The Inner Dimensions
> of Revelation' in SBBR vol. 3 347-49, 353-56, 362-64; Paula A. Drewek 'Feminine
> Forms of the Divine in Bahá'í Scripture' in JBS 5:1 (1992) 20-21; detailed
> overview of symbolism Christopher Buck 'A Symbolic Profile' JBS 8:4 (1998)
> 37-44. Included in BWC Best Known.
> 
> 2) Translator's note:
> . . . I have striven for a happy medium between a literal, philological
> translation and a rendering that seems idiomatic and flows in English. I am
> glad to hear back as to how well I've done in that regard, and to have suggestions
> for revision or pointers to where this version seems awkward or unclear.
> 
> With regard to the substance, it seems to me the 'holy mariner' Tablets
> combine several motifs in Persian mysticism. The 'mariner' evokes Noah (and
> the ship is frequently called a 'fulk' or 'ark,' reinforcing this reference).
> But I wonder if the mariner does not also inevitably evoke Sindbad [of] the
> 1,001 Nights adventure cycle.
> 
> And here the motif of the mariner elides into that of the 'spiritual journey,'
> as with `Attar's *Parliament of the Birds,* where the thirty birds jointly
> go in search of their Oversoul, the Simurgh (lit. '30 birds' in New Persian;
> actually the Simurgh is a late Persian corruption of the Saena Murgha, the
> ancient Persian mythological bird that flapped its wings to send the seeds
> of the world-tree flying and so to populate the earth; but it made for a good
> pun).
> 
> Just as in `Attar's fable the spiritual seekers pass through "7 valleys"
> in search of fulfillment, so do the passengers on the Mariner's ark pass through
> stages and have adventures in each. They are becalmed at sea for a while;
> they pass through the valley of bewilderment; they are translated into paradise;
> they settle in the homeland of the lovers and do serious spiritual partying;
> but they become attached to the 'bar keeper' there and fail the test of detachment.
> Then, when they try to journey higher into the heavens, they are stopped because
> they do not carry the scent of the true Friend.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh ends by 1) holding out the hope that his addressees can attain
> 'inward and outward unity' (a key mystical concept in his writings that I've
> never seen systematically analyzed) and 2) lamenting that they probably will
> choose carnal satisfactions instead.
> 
> [This Tablet was written by Bahá'u'lláh on March 26, 1863, during the 13-day
> Festival of Naw-Ruz, or the Persian New Year, which he celebrated with friends
> and family in a big tent on a rented property, the Mazra`at al-Washshash,
> outside Baghdad).
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views11311 views since posted 2010-12-26; last edit 2025-01-16 08:59 UTC;
> 
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> — *Tablet of the Holy Mariner (Used by permission of the curator)*