[120] This seems an incorrect quotation from St. John’s Gospel, chapter III. verse 3, which is as follows: “Jesus answered and said unto him (Nicodemus): Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”――Further, v. 5: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”――V. 6: That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit, is spirit.”――V. 7: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again.”――V. 8: The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.” [121] The word _âalem_, “world,” has here (as it occurs with the corresponding Sanskrit word _loka_) the meaning of state, “condition.” [122] Koran, chap. LXXXI. v. 1. [123] A well at Mecca, see this vol., p. 14-15, note 1. [124] ادوار و اكوار are the cycles or revolutions of years, according to which the astrologers pretend to prognosticate the accidents of human life. Every _adwár_ consists of 360 solar years, and the _ikwár_ of 120 lunar years; the whole art consists in finding the combination of these years, and their respective relations. [125] _Abú Naśr Muhammed Ebn Turkhan al Fárábí_, a native of _Farab_, a town situated on the occidental confines of Turkestan, afterwards called _Otrar_. He is esteemed as the greatest philosopher among the Muselmans, and at the same time the most detached from the world. To him is attributed the translation of Aristotle’s Analytics, under the title of _Anoluthica_. Avisenna confessed to have derived all his science from him. Ghazali counts Fárábi and Avisenna among the philosophers who believed the eternity of the world, but not without a first mover, which doctrine is believed by the Muselmans to be atheistical. Fárábi died in the year of the Hejira 339 (A. D. 950), according to Ebn Chal and Abulfeda, quoted by Pococke (p. 372); according to Herbelot in Hejira 343 (A. D. 954). SECTION II.――OF THE REPUTATION AND THE TRUTH OF THE PROPHETIC DIGNITY.