The fundamental religion remains the same: a celestial volume called _Payman-i-farhang_, in perfect accord with the Mahabadian code, is transmitted to Kayomers. So the Dabistán: but, in the Desátir, the four books ascribed to the first four Mahabadian prophet-kings contain the purest deism, and although the foundation of astrolatry and demonolatry may be perceived in the cosmology of the first book, yet these did not form a positive worship, which develops itself in the seven planetary books of the seven subsequent Persian kings, to wit: _Kayomers_, _Siamok_, _Hushang_, _Tahmúras_, _Jamshid_, _Feridun_, and _Menocheher_. Under these monarchs, a particular worship was rendered to the seven planets, as to mediators between God and men; the description of the forms under which they have been adored, is not, to my knowledge, found in any other book but the Dabistán. Superstition is certainly as ancient as human nature itself; it is impossible to fix the epoch at which particular opinions and practices originated, such as the eighty-four sitting-postures at prayer; the suppression of the breath for the abstraction of thought; the mystical and fantastical notions upon vision and revelation; and particularly the belief that a man may attain the faculty to quit and to reassume his body, or to consider it as a loose garment, which he may put off at pleasure for ascending to the world of light, and on his return be reunited with the material elements. All these matters are considered as very ancient. We find in the Dabistán a curious account of Persian sects under different names, such as _Abadians_, _Azur-Húshangians_, _Jamshaspians_, _Samradians_, _Khodaiyans_, _Radians_, _Shidrangians_, _Paikarians_, _Milanians_, _Alarians_, _Shidabians_, _Akshiyans_. The founders of these sects are placed so far back as the reigns of Jamshid and Zohak. Individuals professing the particular creed of each of these sects were living in the time of the author of the Dabistán, who was personally acquainted with several of them, and imparts the information which he had himself received from their lips. He gives with particular care an account of the before-mentioned Azar Kaivan,[94] the chief of the later _Abadíans_ and _Azar-Hushangians_. The doctrine of these sectaries contained peculiar notions about God’s nature and attributes, and the world; the latter was to some an illusion; God himself but an idea. To others, God was every thing, to be served alone without a mediator between him and mankind; the heavens and the stars were his companions. God was the sun――fire――air――water――earth; he was the essence of the elements: from every one of these divine principles the heavens, stars, and the whole world proceeded. These were some of the fundamental principles of their metaphysical religion.