The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys

by Bahá'u'lláh

Mathnaví of Rúmí.

Sa’dí, Muslihu’d-Dín of Shíráz (ca. 1184–1291), famed author of the Gulistán and other poetical works.

Persian proverb describing a man who gives up easily. As used here one connotation is that the Shaykh might have considered his station as a mystic leader compromised by the fact of his being taught the new truth by Bahá’u’lláh.

Qur’án 41:30.

Qur’án 11:114; 42:14.

Sa’dí.

Ibid.

Senna, capital of Persian Kurdistán.

This preamble to The Four Valleys is written in the finest Persian epistolary style. The rules of classical letter writing in Persian require quotations from literary works, and assertions of abiding love for the one addressed, who is chided for having neglected the writer.

Hadíth.