THE FIFTH SECTION OF THE DABISTAN describes the Samrádián sect.――In common language Samrád means imagination and thought; and the sects thus named are of many descriptions; the first is that of the followers of _Fartósh_, who lived about the commencement of the Serpent-shouldered _Zohak_’s reign: _Fartósh_ followed mercantile pursuits, and his faith was as follows: this elemental world is merely idea; the remainder, the heavens, the stars, and the simple uncompounded beings actually exist. The holders of this opinion are called the _Fartoshíán_. The second are the _Farshídíyah_, so called from _Farshíd_, the son of _Fartósh_: he asserted that the heavens and the stars are also ideal, and that the simple uncompounded beings only have actual existence. The next are the _Farírajíyah_, so called from _Faríraj_, the son of _Farshid_: his opinion was that the simple uncompounded beings, that is, intelligences and souls, also have no existence, which is the attribute of the necessarily self-existent God alone, and that all besides is ideal, appearing only to exist in consequence of the essence of that sole existence. The next are the _Faramandíyah_, thus named from _Faramand_, the disciple of _Faríraj_: he says, if any person exists, that person knows that the elements, heavens, stars, intelligences, and souls are the Almighty; and what people call the necessarily self-existent God has no being, although we, through imagination (idea), suppose him to exist; which he certainly does not. According to the testimony of the sage _Amr Khaiam_: “The Creator in this aged world is as a vase, Which is internally water and externally ice; Resign to children this trifling about infidelity and faith; Remove from the place where God is only a letter.” They said to him: “How dost thou prove this idea?” he answered: “By means of the solar light we can see: but where is the sun?”