" The Indian said to him: "And do you recognize anyone among those who have perished by your hand in this place?" Khosrow replied to him: "Yes, there is not one among those who perished—from the greatest of the people of the kingdom to the least of them—but that I am aware of him, his name, and his father's name."

The Indian said to him: "Then call by name the one you recognize. For if he be alive, he shall answer you; and if he be not alive, he shall not answer you." Khosrow said to him: "O King, how shall I call him when he is no longer in existence?" The Indian said to him: "Woe to you, O Khosrow! Have you reached this great sovereignty and this high rank, yet you do not know that one is not called by name unless he is existing and visible? For whenever one is not existing and visible, it is not fitting that he be called by his name; if he were called, it would be but play and mockery."

Khosrow said: "Yes." Then the Indian spoke to Hormuz—who was the translator for Khosrow and his tongue: "How then do you call him by a name when you do not find him or behold him? Yet he has names with you; you name him by them and claim he is one with various names, though you do not find them or behold them? And if you did not find anyone, would you call upon names that you call upon while you do not know them?"

Khosrow was dumbfounded (buhita) and said to Hormuz: "You have silenced me with the word of truth."