CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING THE ANCIENT ONE, OR MACROPROSOPUS, AND CONCERNING HIS PARTS, AND ESPECIALLY CONCERNING HIS SKULL.
34. AND after a certain time was that veil entirely disunited in formless separation, and recomposed according to its conformation.
35. And this is the tradition: The Absolute desired within Himself to create the essence of light (the law--that is, the letters of the alphabet, from whose transpositions the law was formed), hidden for two thousand years, and produced Her. And She answered thus unto Him: "He who wisheth to dispose and to constitute other things, let Him first be disposed according unto a proper conformation."
36. This is the tradition described in the "Concealed Book of the King," 1 that the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, the Concealed of the Concealed Ones, hath been constituted and prepared as in various members (for future knowledge).
37. Like as if it were said, "He is found (that is, He may in some way to a certain extent be known), and He is not found;" for He cannot be clearly comprehended; but He hath as it were been formed; neither yet is He to be known of any, since He is the Ancient of the Ancient Ones.
38. But in his conformation is He known; as also He is the Eternal of the Eternal Ones, the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, the Concealed of the Concealed Ones; and in His symbols is He knowable and unknowable.
39. White are His garments, and His appearance is the likeness of a Face vast and terrible.
40. Upon the throne of flaming, light is He seated, so that He may direct its (flashes).
41. Into forty thousand superior worlds the brightness of the skull of His head is extended, and from the light of this brightness the just shall receive four hundred worlds in the world to come.
42. This is that which is written, Gen. xxiii. 16. "Four hundred skekels of silver, current money with the merchant."
43. Within His skull exist daily thirteen thousand myriads of worlds, which draw their existence from Him, and by Him are upheld.
Footnotes
115:1 "The Siphra Dtzenioutha," cap. i. § 16.
Next: Chapter IV: Concerning the Dew, or Moisture of the Brain, of the Ancient One, or Macroprosopus
