Esoteric legends that track history across multiple continents and planes of existence • Synthesizes ancient mythologies across time, space, and cultures to resacralize the human experience • Written as a novella interspersed with metered quatrains in the tradition of medieval Persian belles-lettres • Includes full-color paintings of key figures and motifs, including Sita, Yggdrasil, the Minotaur, Quetzalcoatl, and the Three Marys In this globe-spanning chronicle, Pir Zia Inayat Khan, leader of the Inayatiyya, sets forth an astonishing sequence of legends revealing little-known connections between ancient cultures and spiritual lineages. Framed as a dialogue between the Iranianepic poet Firdausi and his tutelary daimon, this novella follows the tradition of medieval Persian belles-lettres in which prose passages are punctuated with metered verses. The daimon reveals to the hitherto depressed poet the inner history of the world as reflected in the missions of a succession of sages moving through Earth’s lands and ages. Readers will learn of the creation of the universe, the war of the angels and the jinns, the exile of Adam and Eve, and the deeds of Melchizedek and Enoch. They will also explore the rise of the Nephilim, the advent of ancient civilizations, the origins of the Abrahamic faiths, and the history of the Grail and Emerald Tablet. Beautiful paintings by Amruta Patil bring the legends to life. The cumulative effect of the traditions synthesized here is a resacralization of the human experience across time, space, and cultures, achieved through an unexpected marriage of myth and history. “A breathtaking, fresh, and ancient mystical biography of the world. A hypnotic weave of words and images leads us to that twilight place where history meets mystery, and tale meets truth. A tour de force where words find their place on the page with sacred inevitability.” ― Arundhathi Subramaniam, poet and author of When God Is a Traveller “A truly remarkable book of angelic magic unlike any other. Transcending cultures and time periods, it should be read by anyone on the quest for truth.” ― John and Caitlin Matthews, authors of The Lost Book of the Grail “A deep dive into a history of the world that seems more real than the received histories of victors, of ideologues and politicians. These are stories amplified by art; this is art responding to the depths of our common heritage. This book reminds us: we were stories before we came here, we are now acting out our stories, and we will be stories when we are gone. This one is to be read again and again, for each reading will bring new meanings and new illuminations.” ― Jerry Pinto, poet and author of Em and the Big Hoom, winner of the 2016 Windham–Campbell Liter “A book of magical and spiritual visions that awakens the reader’s sense of wholly other realities through the ancient and potent art of mythic storytelling. Read, dream, and be moved beyond the outer imprisonments of our time.” ― R. J. Stewart, poet and author of The Underworld Initiation “Includes tears from Isis after Osiris’s murder, tears of Adam and Eve, and tears of Avalokitesvara among the many vessels of wisdom in this book. It etches more than sixty episodes marking spiritual heroes and heroines across time and space, from Persia to India to Egypt, with a glossary to help navigate the lofty tales and apt poems that grace its pages.” ― Bruce B. Lawrence, Professor Emeritus of Islamic Studies at Duke University Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Ph.D., is the leader of the Inayatiyya, a Sufi fellowship rooted in the mystical legacy of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. He is the author of Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions and Immortality: A Traveler’s Guide. Amruta Patil is a writer, painter, and India’s first female graphic novelist. She is the author of Kari , the Mahabharata-themed Adi Parva and Sauptik , and the Vedic ecofeminist parable Aranyaka . The Hosts of Heaven The angels were the first creatures. The foremost angels are called “the near ones.”* They have never ventured far from the old fountainhead. It’s difficult to distinguish them from the background against which they move; they hardly know themselves. They murmur “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and then fall into a silence that lasts eons. The later angels roamed farther. In those days there was space but no land, ocean, atmosphere, or stars. And so the angels flew in the emptiness of the void. They still fly there. When they meet, they glide through each other. The frisson of their touch is something exceedingly strange. Think of a hand lighter than air touching another. Unlike yourselves we wear no mask, Hence from us comes the perfect kiss. If anyone should ever ask, Then tell them that our touch is this. Marij After the angels came the jinns,* my people. If angels are light, jinns are fire. But our fire is not the fire you know; ours is cool and smokeless. We call it Marij.* It’