The Thousand and Twelve Questions

The  is a priestly text in Mandaeism. It is written in Mandaic, an Eastern Aramaic dialect.

Quotes

 * Drower, Ethel S. (1960). The Thousand and Twelve Questions: A Mandaean Text (Alf Trisar Šuialia). Berlin: Akademie Verlag.


 * Now as to these two mysteries of ziwa and nhura (radiant light and diffused light):
 * know that they are the ancient primal Father and Mother.
 * Pure gold is the mystery of the Father, its name is Radiance;
 * silver is the Mother’s mystery and its name is Light.
 * The crown is the Father’s symbol, and its name is Radiance;
 * the myrtle-wreath symbol of the Mother, and its name is ‘Let there be light’.
 * The owner of a crown (priest) is occupied with the mystery of the Father;
 * a Mandaean (layman) and his wife are concerned with the mystery of the Mother.
 * The ganzibra and the priest — (are like ?) crown and wreath —
 * by the ‘Let there be Light’ they are the Father’s.
 * There are those who delight in the Father
 * and those who delight in the Mother.
 * Those dedicated to the Father belong to the portion of the Right
 * and those dedicated to the Mother to the portion of the Left.
 * They are two Powers (malkia); the one was begotten by the Parṣufa (yet) fell downward,
 * and the other begotten by the lower and (yet) rose upward.
 * Book 2, Part 3.2, Section 20 (Drower 1960, p. 201)


 * Good and Evil of which thou didst speak
 * I mingled together,
 * for they are living waters and turbid water;
 * they are life and death.
 * Error and truth (or "reliability")
 * are wound and healing,
 * they are Pthahil and Hibil-Ziwa,
 * they are spirit and soul.
 * Boundary and boundary-stone
 * are the girdle and drawstring (of the šarwala);
 * they are crown and turban
 * which their father put on their heads.
 * Book 2, Part 3.2, "The Three" (Drower 1960, p. 211)


 * The worlds of darkness and the worlds of light are Body and Counterpart,
 * (they are complements) of one another,
 * Neither can remove from or approach the other,
 * nor can one distinguish either from its partner,
 * moreover each deriveth strength from the other.
 * Book 2, Part 3.2, "The Three" (Drower 1960, p. 213)


 * So, when the Soul came from worlds of light and fell into the body,
 * there came with her some of all the mysteries
 * which exist in the world of light,
 * some of its radiance and its light,
 * some of its sincerity,
 * some of its unity, its order,
 * its peacefulness and its honesty;
 * some of all that there is in the realm of light came to bear her company,
 * to delight her, to purify her and to surround her
 * in order that she may commune with them
 * and that there may be for her that which will aid her
 * against the evils and temptations of the earth.
 * Book 2, Part 3.2, "The Three" (Drower 1960, p. 215)


 * Behold and learn that betwixt Darkness and Light
 * there can be no union or pact;
 * on the contrary, (between them exist) hatred, enmity and dissension,
 * although we are aware of all that takes place and which seeketh to take place.
 * For Darkness is the adversary of Light, for they are Right and Left;
 * they are (earthly) spirit and (immortal) soul;
 * they are sun and moon, day and night, earth and sky;
 * (moreover) they may be called Adam and Eve.
 * Book 1, Part 1, Section 142 (Drower 1960, p. 146)