Sabaism must be distinguished as _ancient_ and _modern_. The first, especially if so remote as it is said to be, can but have imparted, and the other owe, more than one notion, dogma, and rite to Judaism, Christianism, and Muhammedism, all which may be considered as divisions of one and the same Asiatic religion. Thus, in all the four religions, the same patriarchs and the same books, such as the Psalter, are venerated; the Sabaians have a sort of baptism, as the Christians; they believe that angels and intelligences, these movers of the universe, perform the same office which the Muhammedans ascribe to the patriarchs and prophets, they venerate with the latter the temple of Mecca; they perform, however, their principal pilgrimage to a place near Harran (the ancient Carræ) in Mesopotamia; they honor also the pyramids of Egypt, and say, that _Sábí_, son of Seth or Enoch, is buried in the third. They turn their face in praying towards the arctic pole. Several Oriental authors have treated of this religion. To those mentioned in this note, I shall only add _Abulfeda_ and _Mohib eddin Abu ’l Valid Muhammed_, _ben Kemal eddin_, _al Hanefi_, mostly known under the surname of _Ben Shonah_, who collected most particular information about this religion.――(See Pococke, _Spec. Hist. Arab._, p. 138 _et seq._, 1st edit., and Herbelot). [270] The Muhammedans do not believe that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ did really take place, but that God transported his soul and body to heaven, whilst an unfortunate man exactly like the Messiah in appearance was, instead of him, crucified by the Jews. END OF THE DABISTAN. EPILOGUE OF MOULAVI NAZER USHRUF, _Editor of the Persian text of the Dabistán, printed in Calcutta_.[271] In the name of the bountiful and merciful God. After the praise of God, who is acquainted with things future and invisible, who painted the tables of existence of mankind, and in the Dabistán _exhibited_ the truths of things by the information of names and by the representations of intellect, and put his mark thereupon; who bestowed on man, susceptible of guidance, the pittance of the verse: “Whom we had taught wisdom from before us.”[272] He, the unity in whose being all the imaginable unities are lost, and the multitudes of contrary sects and religions are the exhibitions of his attributes. QUATRAIN. “Neighbor, companion, and fellow-traveller, all is he; In the habit of a beggar, and in the satin of a King, all is he; He is in the concourse of divisions and concealed in the mansion of reunion; By God all is he; certainly, by God, all is he.”