The Sabean underworld has its score of rulers, among others these rank first: _Zartay_, _Zartanay_, _Hag_, _Mag_, _Gaf_, _Gafan_, _Anatan_ and _Kin_, with hells and vestibules in plenteous confusion. Hibil descends here, and from the fourth vestibule carries away the female devil _Ruha_ the daughter of Kin. This Ruha, Kessler affirms, is really an anti-Christian parody of the Holy Spirit, but from conversation with the Sabeans I cannot believe this to be true. By her own son _Ur_ Ruha becomes the mother of all the planets and signs of the zodiac. These are the source and controllers of all evil in the world and must therefore be propitiated. But the sky and fixed stars are pure and clear, the abode of Light. The central sun is the Polar Star, with jewelled crown standing before the door of Abathūr, or “father of the splendors.” These “splendors,” æons, or primary manifestations of deity, are said to number three hundred and sixty, (a Semitic way of expressing many), with names borrowed from the Parsee angelology (Zoroastrianism). The Mandæans consider all the Old Testament saints except Abel and Seth false prophets (Gnosticism).[111] True religion was professed by the ancient Egyptians, who, they say, were their ancestors. Another false prophet was _Yishu Mashiha_ (Jesus Christ), who was in fact an incarnation of the planet Mercury. John the Baptist, _Yahya_, appeared forty-two years before Christ and was really an incarnation of Manda as was Hibil. He baptized at Jordan, and, by mistake also administered the rite to Jesus. About 200 A. D., they say, there came into the world 60,000 saints from Pharaoh’s host and took the place of the Mandæans who had been extirpated. Is not this a possible allusion to the spread of the Gnostic heresy and the coalescence of certain Gnostics with the then Sabean community? They say that their high priest then had his residence at Damascus; that is, their centre of religion was between Alexandria and Antioch, the two schools of Gnosticism. Mohammed, according to their system, was the last false prophet, but he was divinely kept from harming them, and they flourished to such an extent that at the time of the Abbasides they had four hundred centres of worship in Babylonia. The Mandæan priesthood has three grades; _tarmida_ or _ta’amida_ (“disciple” or “baptism”), _shkanda_ (“deacons”), and the _Ganzivra_ (“high priest,” literally the keeper of the Ginza or Great Book). The late Ganzivra was Sheikh Yahya, a man of parts and well-versed in their literature, who long lived at Suk-es-Shiukh. Their present high priest is called Sheikh Sahn and was at one time imprisoned at Busrah on charge of fomenting a rebellion of the Arab tribes near Kurna at the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates.