542 MANDAEAN LITERATURE
along with her women spirits. They all practice false magic,
possessed, evil, and ensnared.
She concocts a commotion of false magic.
Her mind is confused.
Who were her imperfect and disfigured instructors
who taught her lies?
Who is this woman, mother of the base monster?^13PTAHIL, ANGEL OF LIGHT
When I, Ptahil,^14 was shaped and came to be, I issued
from a source of huge radiance.
When my father^15 decided to call me out, he called me
out of the huge radiance.
He dressed me in a radiant robe and wrapped me
in a covering of light.
He gave me a major crown in his whose luminosity
the worlds glisten,
and he said to me, "Son, go to the Tibil earth^16
and make the black waters solid.
Solidify the Tibil earth and inscribe Jordan rivers
and canals upon its face."PTAHIL MAKES EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS
With my first cry I solidified the earth from the waters
and stretched the firmament into perfection.
With my second cry I inscribed Jordan rivers and canals
all over its face.
With my third cry I called into being fishes in the sea
and feathered birds of every shape and species.- She is mother of the monstrous lord of darkness, as Sophia is the mother of Yaldabaoth in
gnostic sources. - The demiurge.
- Abathur, the divine judge.
- Tibil is the physical world.