Figure of Mount Taurus.
I am not, O Diodario, to be charged by you with sloth, as your rebukes seem to hint, but the unbridled love created by the benefit I possess from you is what has compelled me, with the utmost care, to seek out and, with diligence, to investigate the cause of so great and astonishing an effect; a thing that could not take effect without the passage of time. Now, to make you fully satisfied concerning the cause of so great an effect, it is necessary that I first show you the form of the site, and then I shall come to the effect, with which I believe you will remain satisfied.
Do not grieve, O Diodario, at my delay in answering your eager request, for these things you asked of me are of such a nature that they cannot well be expressed without the passage of time, especially because, to show the cause of so great an effect, one must describe in good form the nature of the site, and by means of that you will then be able easily to satisfy yourself as to the aforesaid request.
I shall leave aside the description of the form of Asia Minor, and what seas or lands bound the figure of its extent, because I know that the diligence and care of your studies have not left you without such knowledge, and I shall come to set down the true figure of Mount Taurus, which is the cause of so stupendous and harmful a marvel, and which serves the dispatch of our purpose. This Mount Taurus is that which by many is said to be the ridge of Mount Caucasus; but, wishing to make myself quite certain, I chose to speak with several of those who dwell above the Caspian Sea, who show that, although their mountains bear the same name, these are of greater height, and therefore confirm that this is the true Mount Caucasus, because Caucasus in the Scythian tongue means the highest summit. And indeed there is no report that either the East or the West has a mountain of so great a height; and the proof is that the inhabitants of the lands lying to its west see the rays of the sun illuminate a great part of its summit until the fourth part of the longest night, and it does the like for the lands lying to its east.
Quality and quantity of Mount Taurus.
The shadow of this ridge of the Taurus is of such height that, when in mid-June the sun is at midday, its shadow stretches to the beginning of Sarmatia, which is 12 days' journey, and at mid-December it stretches to the Hyperborean mountains, which is a month's journey toward the north. And its side opposite to the blowing wind is always full of clouds and mists, because the wind, parting on striking the rock, closes again beyond it and so carries the clouds with it from every side and leaves them at their striking. And it is always full of the striking of thunderbolts, on account of the great multitude of clouds gathered there, whence the rock is all shattered and full of great ruins. In its roots it is inhabited by very rich peoples and is full of most beautiful springs and rivers, fertile and abounding in every good, especially in the parts facing the south; but when one has climbed about 3 miles, one begins to find forests of great firs, pines, beeches and other like trees. After this, for the space of 3 more miles, one finds meadows and very great pastures; and all the rest, up to the base of Mount Taurus, is eternal snow that never at any time departs, extending to a height of about 14 miles in all. From this base of the Taurus up to a height of one mile the clouds never pass, which here reach 15 miles, being about 5 miles of height by a straight line; and about as much we find to be the summit of the horns of the Taurus, in which, from the middle upward, one begins to find air that warms, and no blowing of winds is felt, but nothing can live there for long. There nothing is born save some birds of prey that brood in the high fissures of the Taurus and then descend below the clouds to make their prey upon the grassy mountains. This is all bare rock, that is, from the clouds upward, and it is the whitest rock, and one cannot go upon the high summit because of its harsh and perilous ascent.

Division of the book.
The preaching and persuasion of faith. The sudden inundation, up to its end. The ruin of the city.
The death of the people and their weeping and despair.
The hunt for the preacher and his liberation and benevolence. Description of the cause of such ruin of the mountain.
The harm it did.
Ruins of snow [avalanches].
The finding of the prophet.
His prophecy.
Flooding of the low parts of western Armenia, whose drainings came about through the cutting of Mount Taurus.
How the new prophet shows that he believes this ruin was made for his purpose.
Description of Mount Taurus and of the river Euphrates.

Why the mountain shines at its summit for the half or the third part of the night, and appears as a comet to those of the west after evening, and before day to those of the east.
Why this comet appears of variable shape, so that now it is round, now long, now divided in 2 or in 3 parts, and now united, and now is lost, and now is seen again.

To the Diodario of Syria, lieutenant of the sacred Sultan of Babylon.
The new event that has happened in these our northern parts, which I am certain gives terror not only to you but to all the universe, shall be told to you in due order, showing first the effect and then the cause.
Finding myself in these parts of Armenia, giving myself with love and care to that office for which you sent me, and, in beginning in those parts that seemed to me most to our purpose, I entered the city of Calindra, near to our borders. This city is set upon the slopes of that part of Mount Taurus which is divided by the Euphrates, and looks toward the horns of the great Mount Taurus to the west. These horns are of such height that they seem to touch the sky, for in all the universe there is no earthly part higher than its summit. And it is always, 4 hours before day, struck by the rays of the sun in the east; and, being of the whitest stone, it strongly shines and does for these Armenians the office that a fair light of the moon would do in the midst of darkness. And by its great height it surpasses the highest heights of the clouds by a space of 4 miles in a straight line. This summit is seen from a great part of the West, illuminated by the sun after its setting, up to the third part of the night, and it is that which among you in clear weather you have already judged to be a comet; and it appears to us, in the darkness of the night, to change into various shapes, now dividing into two or 3 parts, now long, now short. And this arises from the clouds that, on the horizon of the sky, interpose between part of that mountain and the sun; and by their cutting off those solar rays, the light of the mountain is interrupted by various intervals of clouds, and so it is of variable shape in its splendour.

Of funeral offices and processions and lights and bells and company [of mourners].
To men shall be done the greatest honours and pomps without their knowledge.