THE BOOK OF WISDOM OR FOLLY
177
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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.
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