THE PRAYING MANTIS"Say: God is One." This I obeyed: for a thousand and one times a night for one thousand nights and one did I affirm the Unity. But "night" only means LAYLAH;34 and Unity and GOD are not worth even her blemishes. Al-lah is only sixty-six; but LAYLAH counteth up to Seven and Seventy.35 "Yea! the night shall cover all; the night shall cover all." |
COMMENTARY (ΞϜ)66 is the number of Allah; the praying mantis is a blasphemous grasshopper, which caricatures the pious. The chapter recurs to the subject of Laylah, whom the author exalts above God, in continuation of the reasonings given in Chapters 56 and 63. She is identified with N.O.X. by the quotation from Liber 65. NOTES (34) Laylah is the Arabic for night. (35) ALLH = 1 + 30 + 30 + 5 = 66. L + A + I + L + A + H = 77, which also gives MZL, the Influence of the Highest, OZ, a goat, and so on. |