THE ZAHIR
149
inspecting the jails of the kingdom; and in the one at Nittur the
governor showed him a cell where the floor, the walls .and the ceiling
had been covered, in barbaric colors which time was subtilizing be–
fore erasing them, by a Muslim fakir's elaboration of a kind of in–
finite Tiger. This Tiger was composed of many tigers in the most ver–
tiginous fashion: it was traversed by tigers, scored by tigers, and it
contained seas and Himalayas and armies which seemed to reveal
still other tigers. The painter had died many years ago in this very
cell; he had come from Sind, or maybe Guzerat, and his original
purpose had been to design a map of the world. Indeed, some traces
of this were yet to be discerned in the monstrous image.... Taylor
told the story to Mohammed Al-Yemeni, of Fort William; Mohammed
informed him that there was no created thing in this world which
could not take on the properties of
Zaheer,*
but that the All-merciful
does not allow two things to be it at the same time, since one alone is
able to fascinate multitudes. He said that there is always a Zahir; that
in the Age of Innocence it was an idol named Yauq; and later, a
prophet of Jorasan who used to wear a veil embroidered with stones,
or a golden mask.
**
He also said that God is inscrutable.
I read Barlach's monograph-read it and re-read it. I hardly
need describe my feelings. I remember my despair when I realized that
nothing could save me; the sheer relief of knowing that I was not to
blame for my predicament; the envy I felt for those whose Zahir was
not .a coin, but a piece of marble, or a tiger. How easy it would be not
to think of a tiger! And I also remember the odd anxiety with which
I studied this paragraph: "A commentator on the
Gulshan
i
Raz
says
that he who has seen the Zahir will soon see the Rose; and he cites a
verse interpolated in the
Asrar Nama
(Book of Things Unknown)
of Attar: 'The Zahir is the shadow of the Rose, and the Rending of
the Veil.' "
That night at Clementina's house I had been surprised not to see
her younger sister, Mrs. Abascal. In October one of her friends told
*
Such is Taylor's spelling of the word.
**
Barlach observes that Yauq is mentioned in the Koran (71,23) and that the
Prophet is AI-Mokanna (the Vdied One), and that no one except Philip Meadows
Taylor's surprising informant has identified them with the Zahir.
