Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black
corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place
of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and
Our fellow prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins
and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by
which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its
loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on.
God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!
- Baha'u'llah (‘Epistle to the Son of the Wolf’)