Afterwards he appeared in another province, and declared to a great number of people he had got about him that it was not in the power of any to do him hurt; notwithstanding which, his courage failing him, he retired into Syria, and was not heard of any more. His sect, however, continued and increased, pretending that their master had manifested himself to be a true prophet, and had left them a new law, wherein he had change the ceremonies and form of prayer used by the Moslems, and introduced a new kind of fast; and that he had also allowed them to drink wine, and dispensed with several things commanded in the Korân. They also turned the precepts of that book into allegory; teaching that prayer was the symbol of obedience to their Imâm, and fasting that of silence, or concealing their dogmas from strangers: they also believed fornication to be the sin of infidelity; and the guilt thereof to be incurred by those who revealed the mysteries of their religion, or paid not a blind obedience to their chief. They are said to have produced a book, wherein was written (among other things), "In the name of the most merciful GOD. Al Faraj Ebn Othmân of the town of Nasrâna, saith that Christ appeared unto him in a human form, and said, 'Thou art the invitation: thou art the demonstration: thou art the camel: thou art the beast: thou art John the son of Zacharias: thou art the Holy Ghost.'"1 From the year above mentioned the 4 Ebn Shohnah. Vide D'Herbel. p. 537. 1 Apud Abulfar. p. 275.