[181] Bastam is a town of Khorassan, the native place of _Abu Yezid Taifer ben Issa_, one of the most celebrated Súfis of Persia. He had inherited the frock of another mystical personage, called Habib Ajemi. Bastami attained the supreme degree of spirituality――perfect union with God. He occasionally branched out into all the enthusiasm imaginable, saying that God was with him and near him, nay in the sleeve of his garment; and then again he came at times into the regular order of piety and devotion, hoping that God would forgive him his sins, and let his latter end be that of the righteous. It is said of him (see the third _Majalis_, “conference,” of Sâdi) that, having once called out to God for union with the supreme Being, he heard the voice from above: “Abu Yezid, thy _thou_ is still with thee; if thou wilt come to me, abandon thyself and come.” He died in the year of the Hejira 261 (A. D. 874).――(See Transact. of the Lit. Soc. of Bombay, vol. I. p. 100; Malcolm’s Hist. of Persia, p. 395; _Pend nameh_, edit. and transl. by Silvestre de Sacy, p. 231.) [182] Silvestre de Sacy, in the translation of a part of the Definitions of Jorjáni, gives the following note as translated from the Persian (see _Notices et Extraits des MSS._, vol. X. p. 67): “The Súfis declare that every time is the turn of the manifestation of a name (divine); when the turn of this name is terminated, it conceals itself under another name, for which the turn of denomination is arrived. The periods of the seven planets, each of one thousand years, are attached to it; and the words of the Koran, speaking of God: “_Every day he is in action_, indicate it; _because one day of thy Lord is equivalent to one thousand years of yours_. Verse. _O thou whose light manifests itself in the vest of the world, thy names are manifested in the nature of man; thy science shows itself by the science of_ (Muhammed) _the seal_ (of prophets); _thy bounty is manifested by the bounty of khatem_ (the seal). The divine names are distinct forms, which are called _aâyan sabitah_, “fixed realities.”――Extracted from the Diván of Alí.) [183] The word in the text is ازل, _azl_, which means duration of existence during a series of _finite_ times, and _infinite_ on the side of the _past_, as ابد, _abad_, signifies duration of existence during a series of _finite_ times, and _infinite_ on the side of the _future_.――(See Definitions of Jorjáni, in _Not. et Ext. des MSS._, vol. X. p. 39.)