Note 235 — Chapter XII

The name of Pharâoh occurs several times in this work; but the character of this personage is viewed in a different light by the sectarians of Muhammedism. In the Koran he appears nearly as in the Bible of the Jews, with regard to Moses and the Israelites, cruel, tyrannical, presumptuous, and perishing in the Red Sea: not without having before acknowledged their God, and confessed his sins. But some Súfis see and admire in the impious daring of Pharâoh the omnipotence of his power, and adduce, in favor of their opinion, passages from some of their most celebrated philosophers. Indeed Jelaleddin represents Pharâoh equal to Moses. Sahel Ibn Abd-ullah of Shostr says, that the secret of the soul was first revealed when Pharâoh declared himself a God. Ghazáli sees in his temerity nothing else but the most noble aspiration to the divine, innate in the human mind.