Mirza Yahya Nuri entitled Subh-i-Azal was born in Teheran in the year 1247 A.H. (1831). He was the half brother of Mirza Husayn Ali commonly called Baha, to whom he was junior by thirteen years. His exact date of birth is not known. His mother died in childbirth. He lost his father when he was three years old. He was brought up by his step-mother Khadija Khanum, Baha’s mother, and grew up under the care of his elder brother (Baha) (Tarikh-i-Jadid, appendix II. Mirza Jani’s History, PP. 374-376).

She saw His Holiness the Apostle of God and the king of Saintship [i.e. Ali Ibn Abi Talib] enter her house with all dignity and majesty, and bid her bring the child to them. When she had brought him they kissed him and placed him in her hands, saying ‘this child is ours, guard him well, that he may come to the hands of our Qaim.’ This believing woman, thus continued the narrative. ‘When it was morning, and I arose from this dream of bliss, and sought the child, I perceived such a love for him had arisen in my heart as I had never experience towards my own children.”
“So I continued to minister the child with the utmost faithfulness and reverence until he reached his fourteenth year when the manifestation of His Holiness [the Primal Point] took place.”

“This woman’s beautiful spirit in that same year was joined with god’s mercy and this narrative [above given] was related by Hazrat-i Azal’s brother who was her son. He too is a man of excellence, thoroughly versed in the doctrine of Divine Unity; endowed with all good qualities and laudable attributes, and entitled Janab-i Baha. In brief he related as follows: ‘I busied myself with the instruction of Janab-i Azal, the signs of his natural excellence and goodness of disposition were apparent in the mirror of his being. He ever lived gravity of demeanour, silence, courtesy, and modesty, avoiding the society of other children, and their behaviour. I did not however know that he become the possessor of [so high] a station. He studied Persian, but made little progress in Arabic. He wrote however a good Nastaliq hand, and was very fond of the poems of the mystics and initiates of the Doctrine of the Divine Unity.’ ”

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