The book from which the following story has been translated was printed at Constantinople in A.H. 1268; and is entitled _Mukhayyalāt-i Ledun-i illāhī-i Giridli ‘Ali ‘Aziz Efendi_. = Phantasms from the Divine Presence, by ‘Ali ‘Aziz Efendi of Crete. The printer has given the following note at the beginning of the volume; it appears to have occurred in the MS. copy which he had.
“_Phantasms from the Divine Presence, of ‘Ali ‘Aziz Efendi the Cretan._ 1211 (= 1796–7).
“In the year aforesaid did the above-named Efendi complete this book; and at that (same) time he went to Prussia along with an embassy, and there he passed away. As he was versed in the mystic and philosophic sciences, and mighty in giving answers, clear and silencing, on obscure questions in every branch of learning, he arranged and wrote down, in the form of a special treatise, the erudite replies which he afforded to the interrogations of certain distinguished persons among the philosophers of Europe, concerning the revolving of the spheres, the strata of the elements, and other matters natural: such (a work was it) that from the perusal thereof the extent of his learning might have been known unto men of science. And he had a work on mysticism, entitled Vāridāt, and other writings (as well). But his heirs knowing not their value, destroyed and lost them; however, some among them came into the hands of certain of his friends, who have edited and published them.”
“_Such is written on the back of this book._”
The Author’s Preface may be translated as follows:—
“Rolling up the observances of preamble and cancelling the rules of entitulation, it is humbly declared that, while for a certain season turning over the sheets of these pages of revelations and inspirations, in the college of desire and the library of imagination, a well-worn book with a lengthy appendix, entitled Khulāsat-al-Khayāl, (compiled) from the Syriac and Hebrew and other languages laid by in the vault of oblivion, was seen of my warning-beholding eye. When it had been entirely perused and its strange matter considered, as they would form an esoteric scrip, a philosophic volume, such as would cause heedfulness and consideration, and yield counsel and admonition, like the ·Ibret-Numā of Lami’ī and the Elf Leyle of Asma’ī, certain of the strange stories and wonderful tales of that book were selected and separated, and having been arranged, dervish-fashion, in simple style, were made the adornment of the reed-pen of composition, and offered to the notice of them of penetration. For all that this book is of the class of phantasms, still, as it has been written in conformity with the position of the readers of (these) times, it is of its virtues that its perusal will of a surety dispel sadness of heart; and when this has been proved, saying:—