The Báb’s uncle recalled a group summer trip to a populous mountainous area about twelve kilometers from Shiraz when the Báb was about nine years old:
“When we arrived, being completely exhausted, we performed our ablutions, offered our late afternoon and the evening obligatory prayers, paid our homage of visitation, ate dinner, and went to bed. It was not long after, at midnight, that I awoke and noticed that He [the Báb] was not in bed. Deeply perturbed, I was overtaken with anxiety that perhaps He had fallen from the mountain. Finally, after searching extensively, I heard a voice raised in the obligatory prayer and prayers of glorification to the Lord, coming from the lower extremities [of the mountain]. When I followed the melody of that chant, I found the Child, standing alone and in private, in consummate rapture voicing prayers and supplications to the One Who transcends all mention, on the deserted mountainside and at that late hour of the night.”
- Mírzá Habíbu’lláh Afnán (‘The Báb in Shiraz, An Account by Mírzá Habíbu’lláh Afnán, translated and annotated by Ahang Rabbani)
