Note 597 — Chapter VI
David Shea translation
The number seven acts a great part in the system of the Ismâilahs. All things, after having attained the septenary number, are at their end, must undergo a change, and be succeeded by other things. To the septenaries above mentioned, I shall add seven palms, of which the height of a man is said to consist, seven climates, and seven seas, according to the Koran (Sura XXXI. v. 26): “If all the trees on the earth were pens, and God should after that swell the sea into seven seas of ink, the words of God would not be exhausted.” We know how generally in the world such a belief with respect to seven existed and still exists.