“Muhammad having grown silent, Mírzá Muhammad-Ḥasan, who followed the philosophical doctrine of Mullá Sadrá, questioned the Báb in order to induce him to explain three miracles which it would suffice to relate in order to enlighten the reader. The first one was the Tiyyu’l-Ard, or the immediate transfer of a human being from one part of the world to another very distant point. The Shiites are convinced that the third Imám, Javád, had adopted this easy and economical way of traveling. For example, he betook himself, in the twinkling of an eye, from Medina in Arabia to Tus in Khurásán.
“The second miracle was the multiple and simultaneous presence of the same person in many different places. ‘Alí was, at the same moment, host to sixty different people.
“The third miracle was a problem of cosmography which I submit to our astronomers who will certainly relish it. It is said that, during the reign of a tyrant, the heavens revolve rapidly, while during that of an Imám they revolve slowly. First, how could the heavens have two movements and then, what were they doing during the reign of the Umayyads and the Abbassids? It was the solution of these insanities that they proposed to the Báb!
“I shall not dwell on them any longer but I believe I must here make clear the mentality of the learned Moslems of Persia. And if one should consider that, for nearly one thousand years, the science of Írán rests upon such trash, that men exhaust themselves in continuous research upon such matters, one will easily understand the emptiness and arrogance of all these minds.
“Be that as it may, the reunion was interrupted by the announcement of dinner of which each one partook, after which they returned to their respective homes.”
- A. L. M. Nicolas ('Siyyid ‘Alí-Muḥammad dit le Báb,' pp. 239–240; footnotes to chapter 10 provided by Shoghi Effendi)
