And an inscribed book. In the tongue of allusion and according to the tasting of the Folk of the Haqiqah, the inscribed book is what He wrote against Himself in the Beginningless Covenant: “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” May a thousand dear spirits be sacrificed to that heart-caressing moment when He gave us a place of seclusion without us and opened for us the door of His infinite acts of gentleness! With beginningless solicitude and precedent, endless gentleness He was saying to us, “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” O chevalier! Give thanks to the God who, before you asked, gave you something that you would not have reached even if He had left you with yourself and you had thought for a thousand thousand years under your own control. He called you when you were heedless, He taught you when you were ignorant, He created you when you were not a thing remembered [76:1], and He will pour for you from the cup of His kindness in the sitting place of His secret a pure wine [76:21]. All of these are the traces of the precedence of mercy of which He spoke: “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, You planted the seed of guidance with beginningless solicitude, You watered it with the messages of the prophets, You made it grow with help and success-giving, and You nurtured it with Your own gaze. Now it will be fitting if You do not let the wind of justice blow, if You do not stir up the poisons of severity, and if You help with endless kind favor what You planted with beginningless solicitude.”