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eligible, and the safest material for a religious and sacred
monument could be none other than the stone.

The molten bronze statue of the Jupiter worshipped by
the heathen Roman Pontifex Maximus, was taken away
from the Pantheon and recast into the image of St. Peter
by order of a Christian Sovereign Pontiff; and indeed, the
wisdom embodied in the Sapha is admirable and worthy
of all those who worship no other object besides God.

It should also be remembered that not only is the
erected Sapha a sacred monument, but the very spot and
the circuit in which it is situated as well. And it is for
this reason that the Muslimhajj, like the Hebrewhigga, is
performed round the building where the Sacred Stone is
fixed. It is known fact that the Karamatians who carried
the Black Stone from the Ka’ba and kept it in their own
country for some twenty years, were obliged to bring and
put it back in its former place because they could not draw
the pilgrims from Makkah. If it had been gold or other
precious object, it could not have existed, at least, for
some five thousand years; or even if it had had on it some
carvings or images of art, it would have been destroyed
by the Prophet Muhammad himself.

As to the meaning -or rather meanings- of the Sapha,
I have already referred to them as qualities of the stone.

The word consists of the consonants “sadi” and “pi”
ending with the vowel “hi” both as a verb and noun. It means,
in its qal form, “to purify, to watch, to gaze from distance,
and to choose.” It also has the meanings of “to be firm and
sound”; in its pi’el paradigm, which is causative, it simply
means “to make a choice, to cause to elect,” and so on.

A man who watched from a tower was called Sophi
(2 Kings ix. 17, etc.). In ancient times -that is, before the
building of the Temple of Solomon (pbuh) - the Prophet
or the “Man of God” was called Roï or Hozi, which