XCVI
• "Nubakht," one of the opponents of the Prophet Mohammed.
CIII
Rabbi," my lord God.
CIV
"And like the dead of Ind," referring to the practice of the Hindus who burn their dead.
"Munker" and "Nakir," the two angels who on the Day of Judgment open the graves of the dead and cross-examine them—the process is said to be very cruel—as to their faith. Whosoever is found wanting in this is pushed back into the grave and thence thrown into Juhannam. No wonder Abu'l-Ala prefers cremation.
CV
He wrote his own epitaph, which is:
"This wrong to me was by my father done,
But never by me to any one."
CVI
"Izrail," the angel of death.
CXV, CXVI and CXVII
These will suggest to the reader Shakespeare's lines:
"Imperial Ceasar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away;
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should stop a wall t'expel the winter's flaw."
99
