After (the death of Ardashir) appeared the Mobed Azarbad,[456] the son of Marasfand (whose lineage by the father ascended to the prophet Zardusht, and by his mother to king Gushtasp), from whom king Shapur (the son of Ardeshir) and the military having demanded a miracle in proof of the faith, the forty thousand wise men were again assembled.[457] Azarbad, having performed his ablutions, lay down before this great assemblage, whereupon they poured nine mans of melted brass upon his bared breast, but, through the divine glory, his person received no injury. On beholding this, all those who before had been unbelievers, embraced the faith. From the time of Azarbád the Dustúrs of all succeeding kings were of his lineage.[458]
The professors of the excellent faith and the Moslem historians agree, that in Kashmir or Kashmar,[459] a place celebrated for female beauty, a dependency of Naishapur, there was formerly a cypress[460] planted by Zardusht for king Gushtasp, the like of which was never seen before or since, for beauty, height, or straightness: mention of this tree having been made at the court of Mutawakkal[461] when he was engaged in building the Sarman raï, or Samarah[462] palace in the Jâafriyah,[463] the Khalif felt a great desire to behold it: and as it was not in his power to go to Khorasan, he wrote to Abdallah Táhir Zavalimin, “possessor of happiness,” to have the tree cut down, fastened on rollers, and sent to Baghdád. When intelligence of this came to the people of the district and the inhabitants of Khorasan, they assembled at the foot of the tree, imploring for mercy with tears and lamentations, and exhibiting a scene of general desolation. The professors of the excellent faith offered the governor fifty thousand dinars to spare the tree, but the offer was refused. When the cypress was felled, it caused great detriment to the buildings and water-courses of the country; the birds of different kinds which had built their nests on it issued forth in such countless myriads as to darken the air, screaming out in agony with various tones of distress: the very oxen, sheep, and other animals which reposed under its sheltering shade, commenced such piteous moans of woe that it was impossible to listen to them. The expense of conveying the trunk to Baghdad was five hundred thousand dinars; the very branches loaded one thousand and three hundred camels. When the tree had reached one station from the Jaafriyah quarter, on that same night, Mutawakkal the Abasside was cut in pieces by his own guards,[464] so that he never beheld the tree. Some Muhammedan writers state the circumference of the trunk at twenty-seven táziáynah, each a cubit and a quarter long, and also that fourteen hundred and fifty years had elapsed from the time of its being planted to the year 232 of the Hejirah (846, A. D.).[465] The Behdínians say that Zardusht brought with him from paradise a branch which he planted at the gate of the fire temple of Kashmir, and which grew up into this tree: but some sages maintain that, according to the intelligent, this tradition signifies: 1. that there is in vegetables a simple uncompounded soul; and 2. that paradise is the world of beings of that class. Some Yezdanians say that Zardusht prayed the superintending lord of cypress-trees, whom they call Azrawán, to nourish carefully the offspring of this shoot. They also relate, on the authority of a holy Hakim, “doctor,”[466] who said: “I saw the Lord of the cypress, and he declared: ‘I have given orders to slay Mutawakkal for the crime of cutting down this tree.’” Muhammed Kuli Salim also says:
“No person wishes to see his own nursling enfeebled.
Water and fire are ever at enmity with chips and leaves.”
The Behdínians maintain that Ahriman is the production of Time; and that the angels, heavens, and stars (always) were, and will (for ever) be: but that the three kingdoms of nature are a creation. Also that the period of the present creation is twelve thousand years, at the expiration of which comes the resurrection, when God will raise up all mankind and render this elemental world a glorious paradise, and annihilate Ahriman, his worshippers, and hell itself. The Dustúr Shah Zadáh says, in the volume of the Sad Der, or “the hundred gates,”[467] the excellent faith has been received from the prophet Zardusht, the son of Purshasp, the son of Khajarasp, the son of Hujjús, the son of Asfantaman: on him the Almighty graciously bestowed the Avesta and Zand, and through divine knowledge he comprehended all things from eternity to infinity. This is the hundred-gated city constructed from the world of truth, that is, the celestial volume.
“The mighty, through means of the Asta, Zand, and Pazand,
Have constructed on its outside a hundred gates.
Behold what a system of belief Zardusht has introduced,
In which a hundred gates give admission to his city of Faith.”
Gate the first is the belief and acknowledgment of Zardusht’s prophetic character; for when the spirit on the fourth night (after quitting the body) comes to the bridge of Chinavad, where Mihr Ized and Rash Ized take account of its actions, in the Kirfah, or “good deeds” exceed the sins by one hair’s point, they bear the spirit off to paradise, but always on the condition of having professed the faith of Zardusht.