In Persian mythology there is a crystal stream which gushes from a golden precipice of the mythical mountain and descends to the earth from the heavens, as does the celestial Gangā of the Hindūs. This is the heavenly spring from which all the waters of the earth come down.... It is the Ardvi Sūra Anāhita which ever flows in a life-giving current, bringing blessings unto man and receiving in return the sacrifices of the material world.
This river has a thousand cells and a thousand channels, and each of these extend as far as a swiftly mounted horseman can ride in forty days; in each channel there stands a palace gleaming with an hundred windows and a thousand columns; these palaces are surrounded with ten thousand balconies founded in the distant channels of the river, and within their courts are luxurious beds, “well scented and covered with pillows.” In the golden ravines around these palace halls are the wondrous fountains of the Ardvi Sūra Anāhita, and the stream rushes down from the summit of the mountain with a volume greater than all the rivers of earth, and falls into the bosom of the celestial sea that lies at the foot of the Hara-Berezaita. When the waters of the river fall into the Vourū-Kasha, the waves of the sea boil over the shores, and the billows chant a song of welcome.
This celestial spring, with its mighty torrent of waters, is personified as a beautiful goddess[[125]]—a maiden tall and shapely, who is born of a glorious race. She is stately and noble, strong as the current of a mighty river, and pure as the snows that lie on the mountain’s crown. Her beautiful arms are white and thick, her hair is long and luxuriant, for she is large and comely, radiant with the glory of a perfect womanhood.
This glorious maid of the mountain has four white horses, which were made for her by Ahūra Mazda; one is the snow, and one is the wind, while the others are the rain and the cloud; thus it happens that ever upon the earth it is snowing, or the rain is somewhere coming down to gladden the flowers with refreshing touch.
The beautiful goddess springs from a golden fissure in the highest peak, and mounting her chariot draws the reins above her white steeds and drives them down the steep incline, which is a thousand times the height of a man, and continual sacrifice is offered to her brightness and glory.
Clothed with a golden mantle and wearing a crown radiant with the light of an hundred gems, she comes dashing down the mountain side, thinking in her heart: “Who will praise me? Who will offer me a sacrifice with libations?”
The cloud-sea represents the “dewy treasures” of the Hindūs—the rains which are held in the reluctant cloud, and only drawn therefrom by the lightning bolts of Indra, who is assisted in the battle by the Maruts when they “harness their deer for victory.”[[126]] The Persian Vendīdad represents a continual interchange between the waters of the earth and sky.
“As the Vourū-Kasha is the gathering place of the waters
Rise up, go up the ærial way and go down upon the earth....
The large river that is known afar