[114:2] As regards the progress of Buddhism Geiger says:--"We know that in the period after Alexander, Buddhism was powerful in Eastern Iran, and that it counted its confessors as far as Tabaristan. It is especially certain that many Buddhistic priests were found in Bactria. This state of things, which began perhaps in the first century before Christ, lasted till the 7{th} century A.D., when the appearance of Islamism alone cut short the development of Buddhism in Kabul and Bactria, and it is in that period that we will have to place the rise of the Zarathushtra legend in the form in which it is presented to us by Daqīqī." Civilisation of Eastern Iranians Vol. II, p. 170. The ultimate Reality or Eternal Beauty, according to the Ṣūfīs of this school, is infinite in the sense that "it is absolutely free from the limitations of beginning, end, right, left, above, and below."[115:1] The distinction of essence and attribute does not exist in the Infinite--"Substance and quality are really identical."[115:2] We have indicated above that nature is the mirror of the Absolute Existence. But according to Nasafī, there are two kinds of mirrors[115:3]-- (a). That which shows merely a reflected image--this is external nature. (b). That which shows the real Essence--this is man who is a limitation of the Absolute, and erroneously thinks himself to be an independent entity. [115:1] Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 8b. [115:2] Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 10b. [115:3] Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 23b. "O Derwish!" says Nasafī "dost thou think that thy existence is independent of God? This is a great error."[116:1] Nasafī explains his meaning by a beautiful parable.[116:2] The fishes in a certain tank realised that they lived, moved, and had their being in water, but felt that they were quite ignorant of the real nature of what constituted the very source of their life. They resorted to a wiser fish in a great river, and the Philosopher-fish addressed them thus:-- "O you who endeavour to untie the knot (of being)! You are born in union, yet die in the thought of an unreal separation. Thirsty on the sea-shore! Dying penniless while master of the treasure!" [116:1] Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 3b. [116:2] Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 15b.