speed, yet the fire raced in pursuit of them faster than their horses ran. It did not cease until it burned the King called the King of Kings and the devil who was preventing him from obedience to the Ancient of Time.

Then it burned all his companions, armies, followers, and subjects. It burned their beasts, their lands, and their families, until no one remained among them, nor any place in their lands, but that the fire turned it to ashes. The son of the King of India and all who were with him were saved; the fire did not touch anything of them. He returned to his father, and his companions returned to their places in the lands of India. The Ancient of Time returned from the place where he had appeared.

This is what we found in our history. This desert that is seen is the lands that were burned; it is not trodden or crossed due to the lack of its vegetation and the difficulty of its path.

The history mentioned that the purpose of the kings of India and their sages in their actions and in how they managed themselves and their subjects was not for life, nor did they desire it for the sake of pleasure, nor for a state of permanence, nor for bliss or joy. Most of their will was only to seek the acquisition of good deeds, righteous actions, noble traits, and praises. If the end of a day passed for one of them and he had not performed a good deed in it, nor brought a righteous action, nor fashioned a noble trait, he counted it a day of calamity and loss. He would say: "The day has passed from me and I have earned no trade from it, nor has my merchandise increased."

They mentioned that the world is a vestibule (dihlīz); whoever leaves the world blind will be blind in the hereafter and more astray in path. Their purpose in kingship was not for a desire for elevation, nor for status, nor for trade, nor for accumulation, nor for joy or pleasure. Rather, most of their purpose and will was to seek the governance of the world, for its management and the cultivation of the Abode, to suppress every wicked oppressor, to establish the truth as it should be, to prevent wrongdoers from their injustice, and to settle the scholars,