"In the year one thousand two hundred and sixty [A.H.], when He was in His twenty-fifth year, certain signs became apparent in His conduct, behavior, manners, and demeanor whereby it became evident in Shiraz that He had some conflict in His mind and some other flight beneath His wing. He began to speak and to declare the rank of Bab-hood.* Now what He intended by the term Bab [Gate] was this, that He was the channel of grace from some great Person still behind the veil of glory, Who was the possessor of countless and boundless perfections, by Whose will He moved, and to the bond of Whose love He clung. And in the first book which He wrote in explanation of the Surih of Joseph,* He addressed Himself in all passages to that Person unseen from Whom He received help and grace, sought for aid in the arrangement of His preliminaries, and craved the sacrifice of life in the way of His love.
Amongst others is this sentence:
"O Remnant of God, I am wholly sacrificed to Thee; I am content with curses in Thy way; I crave naught but to be slain in Thy love; and God the Supreme sufficeth as an Eternal Protection."
He likewise composed a number of works in explanation and elucidation of the verses of the Qur'án, of sermons, and of prayers in Arabic; inciting and urging men to expect the appearance of that Person; and these books He named "Inspired Pages" and "Word of Conscience." But on investigation it was discovered that He laid no claim to revelation from an angel.
Now since He was noted amongst the people for lack of instruction and education, this circumstance appeared in the sight of men supernatural.
Some men inclined to Him, but the greater part manifested strong disapproval; whilst all the learned doctors and lawyers of repute who occupied chairs, altars, and pulpits were unanimously agreed on eradication and suppression, save some divines of the Shaykhi party who were anchorites and recluses, and who, agreeably to their tenets, were ever seeking for some great, incomparable, and trustworthy person, whom they accounted, according to their own terminology, as the "Fourth Support" and the central manifestation of the truths of the Perspicuous Religion.
Of this number Mulla Husayn of Bushruyih, Mirza Ahmad of Azghand, Mulla Sadiq Muqaddas [the Holy], Shaykh Abu-Turab of Ishtihard, Mulla Yusuf of Ardibil, Mulla Jalil of Urumiyyih, Mulla Mihdi of Kand, Shaykh Sa'id the Indian, Mulla 'Ali of Bastam, and the like of these came out unto Him and spread themselves through all parts of Persia."
~ Abdu'l-Baha, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 3
