The Knock at the Gate

*A retelling for children, based on **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield (George Ronald). The words in quotation marks are the Báb's own, as the account records them.*

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It was evening in the city of Shíráz, and a tired traveler named Mullá Ḥusayn stood near the gate, far from home.

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For years he had been searching for one person — the Promised One that the holy books had foretold. He had prayed and fasted and traveled and asked, and still he had not found Him. He carried in his mind a list of special signs by which he would know the One when he met Him.

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As he stood there, a young Man with a kind and shining face came up to him and greeted him warmly — as if He had been expecting him — and invited him home. Mullá Ḥusayn went. His Host washed his hands for him, gave him tea, and made him feel cared for after his long journey.

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Then the talk turned, all on its own, to the very thing Mullá Ḥusayn had spent his life seeking: How would the Promised One be known? What were His signs?

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The young Man looked at him. Quietly, He lifted the green turban from His head, and said:

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> Look well at me, do I not show these signs?

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Mullá Ḥusayn's heart began to pound. Then his Host took up a pen and began to write — page after page of beautiful answers to the questions Mullá Ḥusayn had never even spoken aloud, as easily as water flowing. By the time the night was over, Mullá Ḥusayn knew. His long search was finished. This young Man was the Báb — "the Gate" — and Mullá Ḥusayn was the very first person in all the world to believe in Him.

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Sometimes the thing we are searching for with all our heart is closer than we think — and when we finally find it, we know it deep inside. That one quiet evening, with a knock at a gate and a cup of tea, a whole new day began for the world.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Look Well at Me"](/stories/ch-look-well-at-me).*

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