For he regarded his own appearance as that of a harbinger of good tidings, and considered his own real nature merely as a means for the manifestation of the greater perfections of that One.

And indeed he ceased not from celebrating Him by night or day for a single instant, but used to signify to all his followers that they should expect His arising: in such wise that he declares in his writings, "I am a letter out of that most might book and a dew-drop from that limitless ocean, and, when He shall appear, my true nature, my mysteries, riddles, and intimations will become evident, and the embryo of this religion shall develop through the grades of its being and ascent, attain to the station of 'the most comely of forms,' and become adorned with the robe of 'blessed be God, the Best of Creators.' ...

and so inflamed was he with His flame that commemoration of Him was the bright candle of his dark nights in the fortress of Maku, and remembrance of Him was the best of companions in the straits of the prison of _Ch_ihrik.

Thereby he obtained spiritual enlargements; with His wine was he inebriated; and at remembrance of Him did he rejoice .-- A Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab), pp.

54-56.
He Whom God Shall Make Manifest The Bab has been compared to John the Baptist, but the station of the Bab is not merely that of the herald or forerunner.