Anthony. "Ignominy!—how abominable to give a sex to God!"
Hilarion. "Thou thyself dost figure him in thy mind as a living person!"
(Anthony again finds himself in darkness.
He beholds in the air a luminous circle, poised upon horizontal wings. This ring of light, girdles like a loose belt, the waist of a little man wearing a mitre upon his head and carrying a wreath in his hand. The lower part of his figure is completely concealed by immense feathers outspreading about him like a petticoat.
It is—Ormuzd—the God of the Persians. He hovers in the air above, crying aloud:)
"I fear! I can see his monstrous jaws! I did vanquish thee, O Ahriman! But again thou dost war against me.
"First revolting against me, thou didst destroy the eldest of creatures, Kaiomortz, the Man-Bull. Then didst thou seduce the first human couple, Meschia and Meschiané; and thou didst fill all hearts with darkness, thou didst urge thy battalions against heaven!
"I also had mine own, the people of the stars; and from the height of my throne I contemplated the marshalling of the astral hosts.
"Mithra, my son, dwelt in heavens inaccessible. There he received souls, from thence did he send them forth; and he arose each morning to pour forth the abundance of his riches.