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One night Shayk Aliy-i-Miri, the religious leader of Akka, went to Baha'u'llah and knelt beside him. He took hold of Baha'u'llah's hands and kissed them, asking, 'Why do you not want to leave the city?' 'I am a prisoner', replied Baha'u'llah. Legally this was true, but in practice, because He was so loved, it was no longer enforced. So the Shayk persisted. 'I beg you to come out and go to Mazra'ih. It is so beautiful and green there, and the oranges are like balls of fire!' At last Baha'u'llah said, 'Very good' and consented to move the following day. The prison doors had opened wide.

Sue Podger is descended from the early Dutch settlers of the Cape of Good Hope, known as Afrikaners. She is the first of this people to become a Baha'i and her maiden surname is Hofmeyr. She was trained at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. An accomplished watercolourist, she uses a range of styles to portray a sensitive and accurate picture of the years when Baha'u'llah was amongst us. The images of one set of her paintings shown on this website were painted for a hard cover book, 'The Incomparable Friend', a history of the life of Baha'u'llah told in stories, which sold out and was out of print for some years. Shirin Sabri, it's author, and Sue, wishing to see it more widely available, have published it as a free...