Conscious that His own life was fast approaching its end, the Báb put all His Writings, His pen-case, His seals and rings in a box which He entrusted to Mullá Báqir-i-Tabrízí, one of the Letters of the Living, with instructions to deliver it, together with a letter, to Mírzá Aḥmad-i-Kátib (Mullá `Abdu'l-Karím-i-Qazvíní). Nabíl-i-A`ẓam writes: Mullá Báqir departed forthwith for Qazvín. Within eighteen days he reached that town and was informed that Mírzá Aḥmad had departed for Qum. He left immediately for that destination and arrived towards the middle of the month of [_Sh_]a`bán.[EA] I was then in Qum.... I was living in the same house with Mírzá Aḥmad.... In those days [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Aẓím, Siyyid Ismá`íl, and a number of other companions likewise were dwelling with us. Mullá Báqir delivered the trust into the hands of Mírzá Aḥmad, who, at the insistence of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Aẓím, opened it before us. We marvelled when we beheld, among the things which that coffer contained, a scroll of blue paper, of the most delicate texture, on which the Báb, in His own exquisite handwriting, which was a fine [_sh_]ikastih script, had penned, in the form of a pentacle, what numbered about five hundred verses, all consisting of derivatives from the word 'Bahá'.[EB] That scroll was in a state of perfect preservation, was spotlessly clean.... So fine and intricate was the penmanship that, viewed at a distance, the writing appeared as a single wash of ink on the paper. We were overcome with admiration as we gazed upon a masterpiece which no calligraphist, we believed, could rival. That scroll was replaced in the coffer and handed back to Mírzá Aḥmad, who, on the very day he received it, proceeded to Ṭihrán. Ere he departed, he informed us that all he could divulge of that letter was the injunction that the trust was to be delivered into the hands of Jináb-i-Bahá[EC] in Ṭihrán.[4] [Footnote EA: Towards the end of June 1850.] [Footnote EB: There were 360 derivatives. (Browne, ed., _A Traveller's Narrative_, Vol. II, p. 42.)] [Footnote EC: Bahá'u'lláh.] It was also during the last few months of His life that the Báb composed the Arabic _Bayán_, which, in the estimation of Nicolas, is the epitome of the teachings of the Báb. * * * * *