For example, if a lieutenant becomes conceited out of pleasure at his position of command, he will suppose himself to be a field marshal and will con­fuse his small sphere with the universal one. He will confuse a sun that appears in a small mirror with the sun whose manifestation is seen in all its splendour on the surface of the sea, due to their similarity in one respect.

In just the same way, there are many people of sainthood who, resembling the difference between a fly and a peacock, see themselves as greater than those who in reality are greater than them to the same degree; that is how they see it and they think they are right. I myself even saw someone whose heart had just been awakened and had faintly per­ceived in himself the mystery of sainthood; he sup­posed himself to be the supreme spiritual pole and assumed airs accordingly. I said to him: "My brother, just as the law of sovereignty has particular and universal manifestations from the office of Prime Minister down to that of District Officer, so sainthood and the rank of spiritual pole have varying spheres and manifestations. Each station has many shades and shadows. You have evidently seen the manifestation of the rank of supreme spiritual pole, the equivalent of Prime Minister, in your own sphere, which is like that of a District Officer, and you have been deceived. What you saw was right, but your judgement of it was wrong. To a fly, a cup of water is a small sea." The person came to his senses, God willing, as a result of this answer of mine, and was saved from the abyss.

I have also seen many people who thought them­selves to be a sort of Mahdi, and they proclaimed their Mahdiship. Such people are not liars and deceivers, they are deceived. They suppose what they see to be reality. As the divine names have manifestations from the sphere of the Sublime Throne down to an atom, and their places of mani­festation differ to the same degree; so the degrees of sainthood, which consist of manifesting the names, differ in the same way. The most important reason for the confusion is this:

In some of the stations of the saints, the charac­teristics of the Mahdi's function may be observed, or a special relation may be formed with the Supreme Spiritual Pole, or with Khidr; certain stations are connected with certain famous persons. In fact, the stations are called the station of Khidr, the station of Uvays, or the station of the Mahdi. Because of this, people who attain to these stations, or to minor sam­ples or shadows of them, suppose themselves to be the famous persons connected with them. They sup­pose themselves to be Khidr, or the Mahdi, or the Supreme Spiritual Pole. If such a person's ego does not seek rank and position, he is not condemned to the state. His excessively high-flown claims are deemed ecstatic utterances, for which he is probably not responsible. But if his ego is secretly set on acquiring rank and position, and if he defeated by it and leaves off thanks and becomes proud, from there he will gradually fall into arrogance, or descend to the depths of madness, or deviate from the path of truth. For he reckons the great saints to be like himself and his good opinion of them is destroyed, because however arrogant a soul is, it still perceives its own faults. Comparing those great saints with himself, he imagines them to be at fault. His respect towards the prophets diminishes, even.