In the summary account of the spend Nask given in the eight book of the Dinkard chapter XIV it is stated in that many marvels owing to Zaratust are published therein just as there are some which collected and selected are noticed by the Dinkard manuscript. This statement evidently refers to the seventh book of the Dinkard which contains the legendary history of zaratust and his religion related as a series of marvels extending form the creation to the resurrection of mankind. A much briefer account of some of the same details occurs at the beginning of the fifth book of the Dinkard and appears to have been adridged from a compilation which was either derived partially from a foreign source or prepared for the use of foreign proselytes. A third compilation of similar legends is found among the selections of zad-sparam. And a careful translation of these three Pahlavi texts constitutes the Marvels of Zoroastrinism contained in this volume.
As the extent of Dk. VII is about 16,000 Pahlavi words it probably contains about four fifths of the details included in the spend Nask the Pahlavi version of which has been estimated in S.B.E vol. xxxvii to extend to 20,500 words. It says very little about Zaratust conferences with the sacred beings and gives no description of the other world and the way thither but it probably contains many verbatim extracts from other parts of the Pahlavi version of the spend Nask which appear however to have been previously collected in the exposition of the good religion an other MS that the Dinkard which is quoted as an authority in Dk. VII.
This seventh bok commences with a detailed statement of the descent of the glorious ruling dynasty from the primeval man Gayomard through his descendants the Pesdadian and Kayanian rulers to Kai-Vistasp. Among the individuals rarely mentioned elsewhere are the sacred being hadish.
Chapter II begins the legendary history of Zaratust with the descent of his glory from the presence of Auharmazd to the house in which Zaratusts mother was about to be bron and alarmed at her radiance the kavinga and karaps or ruling priests of the district oblighe her father to send her away to another valley where porushashpo resided to whom she was afterwards married and several legends are related in which both the archangels and archdemons are active agents which lead on to the birth of Zaratust thirty years before the end of the ninth miliennium of the universe and his complete genealogy is given.
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