Sultan Veled, Bahā’u-’d-Dīn, is said to have recounted of his father, Jelāl, this saying: “A true disciple is he who holds his teacher to be superior to all others. So much so, that, for instance, a disciple of Bāyezīd of Bestām was once asked whether Bāyezīd or Abū-Hanīfa was the greater, and he replied that his teacher, Bāyezīd, was the greater. ‘Then,’ said the questioner, ‘is Bāyezīd the greater, or is Abū-Bekr?’ ‘My teacher is the greater.’ ‘Bāyezīd or Muhammed?’ ‘Bāyezīd.’ ‘Bāyezīd or God?’ ‘I only know my teacher; I know no other than him; and I know that he is greater than all others.’ “Another was asked the last question, and his reply was: ‘There is no difference between the two.’ A third was asked it also, and he replied: ‘It would require a greater one than either of the two to determine which of them is the greater.’ “As God does not walk in this world of sensible objects, the prophets are the substitutes of God. No, no! I am wrong! For if thou suppose that those substitutes and their principal are two different things, thou hast judged erroneously, not rightly.” 68. Sultan Veled is reported to have said: “My grandfather, the Great Master, used to recommend to his disciples to honour his son Jelāl exceedingly, as one of noble extraction and exalted pedigree, of an eternal descent in the past; since the mother of his mother was the daughter of the Imām Sarakhsī, a descendant from Huseyn, son of ‘Alī, and grandson of the Prophet.” 69. Sultan Veled is also reported to have said: “My father told his disciples that I was seven, and my brother ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn eight years old, when the Dizdār Bedru-’d-Dīn Guhertāsh had us circumcised at Qara-Hisār.” (See chap. i., No. 12.)