They expected that he would appear with earthly sovereignty and an innumerable army and declare his revelation, that he would raise dead bodies and restore them to life, and so on.

As these signs did not appear, the _Sh_i'ihs rejected the Bab with the same fierce scorn which the Jews displayed towards Jesus.

The Babis, on the other hand, interpreted many of the prophecies figuratively.

They regarded the sovereignty of the Promised One, like that of the Galilean "Man of Sorrows," as a mystical sovereignty; His glory as spiritual, not earthly glory; His conquests as conquests over the cities of men's hearts' and they found abundant proof of the Bab's claim in His wonderful life and teachings, His unshakable faith, His invincible steadfastness, and His power of raising to newness of spiritual life those who were in the graves of error and ignorance.
But the Bab did not stop even with the claim of Mihdihood.

He adopted the sacred title of "Nuqtiyiula" or "Primal Point." This was a title applied to Muhammad Himself by His followers.