from his place where he stood, and we returned the greeting. He asked us: 'In which place do you command me to sit?' We said to him: 'Wherever manners seat you.' So, he sat outside the door in the place where our shoes were. We remained silent; none of us spoke out of awe for him and veneration. When our silence grew long for him, he said to us: 'It is related that the hearts are soil, sciences are its planting, and discussion is its water. So, revive the heaven of your hearts with good discussion.'"

He [the narrator] said: "We all rose and said to him: 'O our master, you have educated us by what you have done; so, sit wherever science and manners seat you.' He said: 'He entered the head of the assembly, but there was no space in it.' He glanced, and I raised my head to the wood in the house and saw it growing long, extending and widening. I saw a chair appear, and above it a cushion that had risen from the chair, and the chair had risen from the ground. Then he sat, and there was between him, the cushion, and the chair a space like that between the cushion and the chair."

He said: "We fell prostrate on our faces. He said to us: 'Raise your heads and return to what you were upon; and bring it [the wine].' We brought it. He took the cup in his hand and filled it until the cup rose high. Then he rose above his height, and the cup rose higher similarly. Then he cast it upward and it vanished from us, then returned empty. He did that three times. Then he turned to us and said to us: 'Indeed, the best of my companions to me, the highest of them in degree, and the nearest to me in station is the one who gains understanding in his religion and is sincere in his certainty. Indeed, the most hated of my companions to me and the farthest from me is he who, when he hears a report related from us and attributed to us, his intellect does not accept it, so he treats it as a lie and charges with disbelief the one who brought it. He does not know that the report came from us and was attributed to us; thus, he would have left our Guardianship