When I was a child,
and dwelling in my kingdom,
in my mother's house, and was content with the wealth and the
luxuries of my nourisher,
from the East, our home,
my mother equipped me and sent me forth.
Of the wealth of our treasury
she took abundantly, and tied up for me a load
large and yet light, which I myself could carry,
and furnished me with the adamant,
which can crush iron.
She then took off from me the glittering robe,
which in her affection she made for me,
and the purple toga,
which was measured and woven to my stature.
She made a compact with me,
and wrote it in my heart, that it might not be forgotten:
"If thou goest down into Egypt,
and bringest the one pearl,
which is in the midst of the sea
around the loud-breathing serpent,
thou shalt again put on thy glittering robe
and thy toga, with which thou art contented,
and thou shalt be heir in our kingdom."
I quitted the East and went down,
there being two guardians,
for the way was dangerous and difficult,
and I was very young to travel it.
I went down into Egypt,
and my companions parted from me.
I went straight to the serpent,
I dwelt in his abode.
And when I was single and alone
and became strange to my family,
one of my race, a free-born man,
and Oriental, I saw there,
a youth fair and loveable;
and he came and attached himself to me,
and I made him my intimate friend,
and associate with whom I shared.
I warned him against the Egyptians,
and against consorting with the unclean.
And I dressed in their dress,
that they might not hold me in abhorrence,
because I was come from abroad in order to take the pearl,
and arouse the serpent against me.
But in some way other or another
they found out that I was not their countryman,
and they dealt with me treacherously,
and gave their food to eat.
I forgot that I was a son of kings,
and I served their king;
and I forgot the pearl,
for which my mother had sent me,
and because of the burden of their oppressions
I lay in a deep sleep.
But all these things that befell me
my mother perceived, and was grieved for me;
proclamation was made in our kingdom,
that every one should come to our gate,
kings and princes of Parthia,
and all the nobles of the East.
And they wove a plan on my behalf,
that I might not be left in Egypt;
and they wrote to me a letter,
and every noble signed his name to it:
"From thy familiy, kings of kings,
from thy mother, the mistress of the East,
to thee our son, who art in Egypt, greetings!
Call to mind that thou art a son of kings!
See the slavery, whom thou servest!
Remember the pearl,
for which thou was sent to Egypt!
Thou shalt be adorned,
when thy name hath been read out in the list of the valiant."
My letter is a letter,
which the king sealed with his own right hand,
to keep it from the wicked ones, the children of Babel,
and from the savage demons of Sarbug.
It flew in the likeness of an eagle,
the king of all birds;
it flew and alight beside me,
and became all speech.
At its voice and the sound of its rustling,
I started and arose from my sleep.
I took it up and kissed it,
and I began to read it;
and accordingly what was traced on my heart
were the words of my mother.
I remembered that I was a son of royal parents,
and my noble birth asserted itself.
I remembered the pearl,
for which I had been sent to Egypt.
I began to charm him,
the terrible loud breathing serpent.
I hushed him asleep and lulled him into slumber,
for my family name I named over him,
and the name of my mother, the queen of the East.
I snatched away the pearl,
and turned to go back to my home in the East.
And their filthy and unclean dress I stripped off,
and left it in their country;
and I took my way straight to come
to the light of our home in the East.
And my letter, my awakener,
I found before me on the road;
and as with its voice it had awakened me,
so too with its light it was leading me.
It, that dwelt in the palace,
gave light before me with its form,
and with its voice and its guidance
it also encouraged me to speed,
and with its love it drew me on.
I went forth and left Babel on my left hand;
and I came to the great Maisan,
to the haven of merchants,
which sitteth on the shore of the sea.
And my bright robe, which I had stripped off,
and the toga that was wrapped with it,
my mother had sent thither,
in whom truth could be trusted therewith.
And because I remembered not its fashion,
for in my childhood I had left it in my mother's house,
on a sudden, when I received it,
the garment seemed to me to become like a mirror of myself.
I saw in it all,
and I received all in it,
and the image of the king of kings
was embroidered and depicted in full all over it,
and like the stone of the sapphire too
its hues were varied.
I saw also that all over it
the instincts of knowledge were working,
and I saw too that it was preparing to speak.
I heard the sound of its tones, which uttered:
"I am active in deeds,
and my stature grows according to labors."
And in its kingly movements
it poured itself entirely over me.
Love urged me too run
to meet it and receive it;
and I stretched forth and took it.
With the beauty of its colors I adorned myself.
(adapted from a poem written by an Asyrrian gnostic poet in the 2nd century CE)
