Chapter LXXIV

CHAPTER LXXIV.

1. As to the seventy-third question and reply, that which you ask is thus: Is there any discomfiture (vânîdârîh) of the archangels from that stench, or not?

2. The reply is this, that the archangels are immortal and undistressed; their place, also, is in that best existence of light, all-glorious, all-delightful, and undisturbed; and the strength of the stench due to the demons 1 does not reach unto anything pertaining to the archangels. 3. The, archangels are omniscient 2, friendly to the creatures, persistent, and procure forgiveness; they know that heinous practice which is the heinous practice 3 of that wretched dupe (frîftakŏ) who has become defiled in that most filthy manner (zîsttûm ârang), which is like that which is provided and which is applied to him even in the terrible punishment 4 that has come upon him from the demons; and then, on account of their friendliness to the creatures, it has

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seemed to them severe, and thereby arises their forgiveness which is according to whatever anguish is owing to the torment which galls him.

Footnotes

221:1
Reading az-sêdâîkŏ, but it may be âz-sêdâîkŏ, 'of the demon of greediness,' or it may stand for khavdak-sêdâîkŏ, 'of a male paramour of the demons,' as mentioned in the last note.
221:2
Omniscience with regard to what is taking place in the world being an indispensable characteristic of any being to whom prayers are addressed, or whose intercession is implored.
221:3
These words are thus repeated in K35, and the repetition may be correct.
221:4
Referring probably to the punishment of such. a sinner, detailed in AV. XIX, 1-3, as follows:--'I saw the soul of a man, through the fundament of which soul, as it were, a snake, like a beam, went in, and came forth out of the mouth; and many other snakes ever seized all the limbs.'

CHAPTER LXXIV.

Footnotes

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