supplication. Ismail Perihanoglu notes how Bediuzzaman preferred to perform his worship, an important element of which was contemplation [tefekkür , in high places and elevated spots. Besides describing him climbing to the highest point in the citadel of Van, mentioned above, he tells of another occasion when he found Bediuzzaman on the roof of the mosque plunged in thought.While Molla Hamid who spent the most time with him on Mount Erek, states that Bediuzzaman was never for a moment idle, but always occupied, mostly in prayer and supplication. He spent hours on his knees, so that his toes became raw. When one of his students suggested he sat in a more comfortable position like themselves, he replied:
"We have to win eternal life in this brief life and fleeting world. Both sit comfortably and claim Paradise - that's not possible! I'm not so bold as to sit comfortably!"
Bediuzzaman and his students transformed a ruined monastery on the mountain into a mosque, and in a thicket of trees by the source of the Zernabad, they built a small platform on the interwoven branches for Bediuzzaman, which he found conducive to study, prayer, and contemplation. These tree-houses became a mark of the New Said and after he had been exiled to western Anatolia, he had a number made in spots favourable for `reading the book of the universe'.
Molla Hamid also relates many anecdotes illustrating Bediuzzaman's great kindness towards animals and his respect for them as creatures, and his affinity with them and power over them. The following is an example showing this last, that is, illustrating Bediuzzaman's keramet, or spiritual powers.
A number of people arrived one day on the mountain to visit Bediuzzaman, and when it became apparent they were to stay overnight, Molla Hamid was sent down to a neighboring village to get some quilts. He was frightened of meeting wolves, dogs, or other wild animals, of which there were many, and cut himself a stout