thus answered: “The righteous professor of righteousness; secondly, he who to righteousness joins generosity and liberality, walking unceasingly in the way of righteousness and withdrawing from evil; thirdly, he who is friendly to fire and water, to all living and animated beings; for man, by the knowledge and practice of this precept, delivers himself from hell and attains to union with the eternal paradise. O, Zardusht! whichever of my servants in this transitory sojourn of existence practises oppression and cruelty towards my creatures, and averts his head from obedience to my commands, repeat thou to such this warning: that unless he desist from rebellion, he shall dwell in hell to all eternity.” Zardusht again asked: “O most just God, impart to me the names of the _Amshásfands_,[402] that is, of the angels the most acceptable in thy presence; gladden me by their names and sight; cause me to hear their discourse; and graciously enable me to discern the impious Ahriman,[403] who turns not to good through his evil nature; give me power to behold the good and evil of this world, and its termination; the effect of the revolving sphere, with the successive production of modes or the reappearance of things.” When he had thus laid before the Almighty the secret wishes of his heart, he received this answer: “I am the author of good; the benevolent and the beneficent; I neither do evil, nor enjoin it to be committed. I consent not to wickedness, neither do I bring calamity on my creatures: evil and wickedness belong exclusively to Ahriman. It is, however, incumbent on me to keep in hell to all eternity the troops of Ahriman in reward for their deeds: the ignorant only assert that I am the “author of evil.”[404] The Almighty then made Zardusht acquainted with the celestial revolutions and the motions of the stars, and their good and evil influences; he also showed him paradise filled with light, angelic nymphs, palaces, and _Amshásfands_; communicating to him at the same time the knowledge of all mysteries, and teaching him all sciences, so that he knew every thing from the commencement of existence to the end of time; he likewise showed him Ahriman in the gloom of hell, who, on beholding Zardusht cried aloud: “Turn away from the faith of God, that thou mayest obtain all thy desires in this world.”[405]