Liber Aleph

THE BOOK OF WISDOM OR FOLLY 177 #t De Herbo Sanctissimo Arabico (Of the Most Holy Grass of the Arabs) ECALL, o my Son, the Fable of the Hebrews, which they brought from the City Babylon, how Nebuch- adnezzar the Great King, being afflicted in his Spirit, did depart from among Men for Seven Years’ Space, eating Grass as doth an Ox. Now this Ox is the Letter Aleph, and is that Atu of Thoth whose Number is Zero, and whose name is Maat, Truth, or Maut, the Vulture, he All- Mother, being an Image of Our Lady Nuith, but also it is called the Fool, who is Parsifal, “der reine Thor,” and so referreth to him thatwalketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he is Harpocrates, the Child Horus, walking, (as saith David, the Badavi that became King in his Psalms) upon the Lion and the Dragon; that is, he is in Unity with his own secret Nature, as I have shewn thee in my Word concerning the Sphinx. O my Son, yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should eat the Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitchment thereof behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of mine Eyes. Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it involveth the Mystery of the Transcending of Time, so that in One Hour of our terrestrial Measure did I gather the Harvest of an Æon, and in Ten Lives I could not declare it. r