My anxiety to see her is now greater than ever!

ZAIN: (Staring at Najeeb with piercing eyes): You are a Christian, are you not?

NAJEEB: Yes, I was born a Christian. However, with all regard to my ancestors, who bequeathed to me a religion as well as a name, I must add that if we were to do away with the various religions, we would find ourselves united and enjoying one great faith and religion, abounding in brotherhood.

ZAIN: You speak wisely, and on the matter of a united faith, there is none more abundantly informed than Amena Divine. She is, to the multitudes of all beliefs and ancestries, like the dew of the morn that falls from high and becomes as glittering gems upon the colourful leaves of all of the flowers. Yes … she is like the morning dew.… (Zain stops talking at this point, and looks toward the east, listening carefully. Then he stands up, cautioning Najeeb to be alert, and Zain warns in an excited whisper): Amena Divine approaches! May good fortune be with you!

NAJEEB: (In a faltering whisper): My long months of anxiety may soon find reward! (Najeeb places his hand upon his forehead, as if to calm his leaping nerves, and he senses a change in the character of the atmosphere. Recalling Zain’s words of possible failure, his expression of joyful anticipation changes to one of deep concern, but he now remains as motionless as a statue of marble.)

(Amena Divine enters and stands before the two men. She is draped in long, silken robes, and her features, gestures, and raiment cause her to resemble one of those goddesses worshipped by the past ages, rather than an oriental woman of her actual time. It is impossible to speculate even generally upon her age, for her face, though youthful, is unrevealing, and her deep eyes reflect one thousand years of wisdom and suffering. Najeeb and Zain remain reverently motionless, as if in the presence of one of the prophets of God.)

AMENA: (After staring at Najeeb as if penetrating his heart with her magnificent eyes; in a serene, confident voice): You are here to learn about us, but you shall not know more about us than you know about yourself, and you shall hear from us only that which you hear from yourself.

NAJEEB: (Perplexed, and exhibiting nervous fear): I have already seen, heard, and believed.… I am contented.

AMENA: Be not satisfied with partial contentment, for he who engulfs the spring of life with one empty jar will depart with two full jars. (Amena extends her hand toward him; he takes it in awe with both hands and kisses the ends of her fingers, impelled by a strong, unknown emotion. She then offers her other hand to Zain Abedeen, and he kisses it. Najeeb appears happy to have pursued the apparently correct procedure first. Amena Divine slowly withdraws herself.)

AMENA: (Sits upon a smooth rock and speaks to Najeeb): These are the chairs of God. Be seated. (Najeeb seats himself nearby and Zain does likewise. Amena continues, again to Najeeb): We see in your eyes the true light of God, and he who looks upon the true light of God will see in us our inner reality. You are sincere, and you love the truth, and therefore you desire to know more of truth. If you have words to say, you have but to speak and we will give heed, and if you have in your heart a question, ask and we will respond in truth.

NAJEEB: I come to inquire upon a matter that has been the consuming topic of conversation among the throngs. But when I found myself in your presence, I realized the enormity of the meaning of life, truth, and God, and now all else is unimportant. I am like the fisherman who threw his net into the sea hoping to find it laden with food for a day of his sustenance, but when he drew the net he found in it a heap of everlasting precious stones.

AMENA: I see in your heart that you have heard about our entry into Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, and that you desire now to hear further of the Golden City.

NAJEEB: (Ashamed, yet intensely interested): Yes, since childhood the name Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, has been embracing my dreams, preying upon my thoughts, and agitating my heart through its hidden meaning and tremendous significance.

AMENA: (Lifts her head and closes her eyes, and in a voice that, to Najeeb, seems to be emanating from the very heart of space, she speaks solemnly): Yes, we reached and entered the Golden City and sojourned there and filled our souls with its fragrance, and our hearts with its secrets, and our pouches with its pearls and its rubies, and our ears with its music, and our eyes with its beauty. And he who doubts that which we have seen and heard and found there is doubting his very self before God and man.

NAJEEB: (Slowly, and with difficulty and humility): I am naught but an infant, lisping and faltering and unable to express myself. Will you be kind to me and explain further, and forgive my many questions?

AMENA: Ask as you wish, for God has made many doors opening into truth which He opens to all who knock upon them with hands of faith.

NAJEEB: Did you enter Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, in body or in spirit? Is this Golden City built of the glittering elements of this world and erected in a precise part of this world, or is it an imaginary or spiritual city which only the prophets of God can reach in ecstasy when Providence brings upon their souls a veil of eternity?

AMENA: All on earth, seen and unseen, is spiritual only. I entered the Golden City with my body, which is merely an earthly manifestation of my greater spirit, and which is, in all persons, a temporary vault for the safe-keeping of the spirit. I entered Iram with my body concealed within my spirit, for both are ever-present while on earth, and he who endeavours to cleave the body from the spirit, or the spirit from the body is directing his heart away from truth. The flower and its fragrance are one, and the blind who deny the colour and the image of the flower, believing that it possesses only a fragrance vibrating the ether, are like those with pinched nostrils who believe that flowers are naught but pictures and colours, possessing no fragrance.

NAJEEB: Then Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, is a spiritual place only!

AMENA: (Indulgently): Time and place are spiritual states, and all that is seen and heard is spiritual. If you close your eyes you will perceive all things through the depths of your inner self, and you will see the world physical and ethereal, in its intended entirety, and you will acquaint yourself with its necessary laws and precautions, and you will understand the greatness that it possesses beyond its closeness. Yes … if you will close your eyes and open your heart and your inner perception you will discover the beginning and the end of existence … that beginning which in its turn becomes an ending, and that ending which must surely become a beginning.

NAJEEB: Is every human capable of thus closing his eyes and seeing the unclothed truth of life and existence?

AMENA: Man is empowered by God to hope and hope fervently, until that for which he is hoping takes the cloak of oblivion from his eyes, whereupon he will at last view his real self. And he who sees his real self sees the truth of real life for himself, for all humanity, and for all things.

NAJEEB: (Placing both hands upon his bosom): Then all I can see and hear and touch and think of in this universe exists right here in my own heart!

AMENA: All things in this vast universe exist in you, with you, and for you.

NAJEEB: Then I may truthfully say that Iram, the City of Lofty Pillars, is not far distant, but is found within me, the entity existing as Najeeb Rahmé!

AMENA: All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.

NAJEEB: (Overwhelmed by the vastness of the subject, and after a brief pause, permitting full assimilation of his instruction): I was told that you journeyed many days before you reached the heart of the desert of Rabh el Khali, and that your father’s spirit revealed itself to you and directed you in your wanderings until you reached the Golden City. If a person should desire to reach that city, need he be in the same spiritual state you possessed at that time, and is it required that he possess your wisdom in order to gain entrance into that celestial place you visited?

AMENA: We crossed the desert and suffered the pangs of hunger and the madness of thirst and the fears of the day and the horrors of the night and the frightening silence of eternity before we saw the walls of the Golden City.