Tadhkirah — Page 584
584 swine, wolves, camels etc. abounded. It was conveyed to me that all these were human beings who had taken on the form of animals on account of their misconduct. Then I saw that the animal of the size of an elephant, which was a compound of various forms and had emerged solely with Divine decree from the earth, came and sat down near me, facing the north. It had a modest appearance and very shy looks. Every few minutes it would run into one of the surrounding forests where its entry caused great confusion and terror and it started killing and eating the animals in the forest. I could hear the noise of its crunching the bones. After every raid into the forest it returned to me and sat down close to me, staying for about ten minutes. Then it raided another forest where its action was repeated and, at the end of it, returned to me. Its eyes were very large and I studied it carefully each time it came back to me. It conveyed to me, by the expression of its face, that it was helpless in the matter and that it was only carrying out a task that had been assigned to it. It appeared to me to be a gentle and pious creature who did nothing on its own account, but only that which it was commanded to do. Then it was conveyed to me that this animal was the plague and was the [germ out of the earth], mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, which would be sent in the latter days and it would bite people because they did not believe in God’s Signs …. The germ of the earth, mentioned in these verses, was destined to appear in the time of the Promised Messiah. It was further conveyed to me that this animal combining the features of many animals, which I had seen in my dream, was the germ of the plague. God had named it [germ of the earth] as this malady originates with the germs of the earth and is propagated by them and it first affects rats and then spreads