Chapter 17
When Asha went away from the king’s palace, Zarathustra met him, and they went together to the prison where the guardsmen were confined, awaiting execution scheduled for sunrise; and four hundred of the converts of Asha also came. And when they were near the prison, Zarathustra said to them:
Stand in the altar (crescent) of the living God, for his power is upon me, and I will deliver this prison! || And the keeper of the prison and also his attendants, woke up, and came with spears, saying: Disperse! Disperse! Or, by the King of the Sun, you shall die!
Zarathustra said: Are you greater than I’hua’Mazda? Thrust, then, your spear against my breast. The keeper did so, saying: Your size is nothing to me, you boaster! But, lo, the shaft was broken in a thousand pieces, nor did the blade touch his garments. Seeing which, the other spearmen feared, and Zarathustra walked up to them and took their spears from them.
And the Zarathustrians stood in the form of a living altar, and Zarathustra laid his hands against the front wall of the prison, saying: In your wisdom and power, O I’hua’Mazda, deliver this prison! And, behold, the front wall opened as a door opens (swung open), and the prisoners came out unharmed.
Zarathustra said: Tomorrow the king will decree to death every Faithist within the city. Go, therefore, while it is yet night, and command all my people to rise and depart out of the city at once, and I will lead them to a place of safety. So that same night the Faithists fled beyond the walls.
And it came to pass that on the next day, when the king heard what had transpired regarding the prison, he decreed to death every Zarathustrian found within the city, even as prophesied by Zarathustra. But they were already gone and into the Forest of Goats, being four thousand six hundred and thirty men, women and children.