In the poem Praised be my Lord, the Most High, Baha’u’llah invites readers into Paradise, and gives an account of the activities of the Divine Houri there.
The poem has 45 verses. Each verse ends with one of two refrains: “Praise to my Lord, the Most High” or “Praise to the one who created and arranged”. The majority of the poem is an account of the Houri’s appearance in Paradise and her actions in renewing creation. However, verses 1-13 constitute an introductory section, in which Baha’u’llah takes the reader on a short guided tour of the world in which the drama takes place, and points out various features and delights that the reader can expect to encounter there. The reader is addressed as “letter of eternity”, an acknowledgment perhaps that the reader’s existence originates in the Word of God and is therefore a letter of those words.
Using the image of a person walking a decorated pathway, Baha’u’llah begins by leading the reader away from earth and into heaven. He tells her to put on the “sandals of detachment”, which is a reference to the need for the reader to detach from all things in the physical world. Baha’u’llah counsels the reader to resist being saddened by events on earth so that she can make the ascent into the realm of faithfulness. He explains that a place in heaven with him has been set aside for her. In that place, she will hear beautiful melodies, drink red wine, eat sacred fruits, fly about on gemstone wings, sing the songs of eternity, be enchanted by glances from resplendent lounges, awaken to divine guidance, be nourished by the fruits of the Word of God, and hear the call God from the broadcast of the Unseen.
At this point, the poem shifts to the Houri story. The Houri descends from an unknown place and accepts a “veil of glittering jewels”, which most likely a reference to divine revelation. She wastes no time in doing a host of outrageous things. She serves wine, leans on her leg with one arm and gives a toast with the other, beams a piercing glare that unsettles everyone, and allows her hair to fall from her veil onto her shoulders. The black snake hidden in her dark hair swallows up the whole of creation and the appearance of her face brings it back to life again. She lifts a black veil from her brow and reveals a brilliant new reality. Finally, she stands triumphant before all and cries out: “Am I not the beauty of the Beloved?”, to which the voice of existence confirms that, indeed, she is. The essences of spirit dance, the sincere are mesmerized, the minds of the holy are distracted, and a divine crier shouts out that it is better for a person to glance at her once than to possess both worlds.
The Houri continues to overturn the established order. She rises up and resurrects all creation, she sits down and breaks hearts, she reads sacred messages from an emerald tablet and causes spirits to issue from the realm of names, she points with her finger and annihilates past religions, she moves about and causes the sun of revelation to split. She bares her head so that her ringlets fall, which releases the Word of God from the strands of her hair. Her black hair is silhouetted against her white neck producing the difference between night and day. Finally, she utters the call of God in “the paradise of presence”, warning the righteous that they will be lured away from their goal and will never attain the heights of Paradise. It is a message written on the everlasting tablet, which contains wisdom that is beyond human reach.