686 ISLAMIC MYSTICAL LITERATURE
of lights, jinns, and humans began to write
and wrote about the appearance and majesty
of the eternal farthest dome, all would be used,
less than a thousandth of it written down,
fulfilling words of god, 'Look, if the sea
were ink for words of my lord, it would
dry up before seizing words of my lord.'^76
"Then the high king's cries echoed left and right.
The two cries then converted into beams,
and these two beams were pure uncounted spirits.
Each spirit was made of seven colors, each
color a million colors like the rubies
from Badahsan, carnelian, coral,
turquoise, emerald, and pearls. And each joint beamed
its light like a clear star, and as our fingers
and toes have nails, so every moon or sun
shone from each nail. They were in six circles,
and each group had a leader and an elder.
The master was Azazi'il, and his
six ranks of elders went from one to six.
IN HIS IMAGE AND ARROGANCE AZAZI'IL
CREATES FROM LIGHT
"The high king lent Azazi'il light, and using
this light he shaped his creations.
In his image he made spirits. The king
shouted about what he had done. Azazi'il shouted
his creation of place, aeon, and spirit into being,
and no one but the high king knows how many.^77
"The high king said to Azazi'il, 'Old man,
tell me who you are and what I am
and what all these creatures are.' Azazi'il
- Qur'an sura 18.
- The gnostic demiurge (for example, Yaldabaoth in the Secret Book of John) creates in a
similar fashion in other texts.
