Let’s get an overall understanding of the first Tablet, namely the Suriy-i-Haykal, or the Surih of the Temple. The word Súrah, is Arabic. It means chapter. It is used for chapters of the Qur'an. Baha’u’llah also employed this term for many of His Arabic Writings, especially those written in the style of the Qur'an.
In the introductory section of the book “The Summons of the Lord of Hosts”, the Universal House of Justice explains that this Tablet is “one of Bahá'u'lláh's most challenging works.” They further indicate that this Tablet “ .. was originally revealed during His banishment to Adrianople and later recast after His arrival in 'Akká.” In the version included in “The Summons of the Lord of Hosts” they explain that Baha’u’llah “ .. incorporated His messages addressed to individual potentates -- Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, Queen Victoria, and Násiri'd-Dín Sháh.”
The House of Justice further indicate that “It was this composite work which, shortly after its completion, Bahá'u'lláh instructed be written in the form of a pentacle, symbolizing the human temple. To it He added, as a conclusion, what Shoghi Effendi has described as "words which reveal the importance He attached to those Messages, and indicate their direct association with the prophecies of the Old Testament":
“Thus have We built the Temple with the hands of power and might, could ye but know it. This is the Temple promised unto you in the Book. Draw ye nigh unto it. This is that which profiteth you, could ye but comprehend it. Be fair, O peoples of the earth! Which is preferable, this, or a temple which is built of clay? Set your faces towards it. Thus have ye been commanded by God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.”
In the book called “Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time” John Walbridge explains that: “The 'Tablet of the Temple' is a major Arabic Tablet of Bahá'u'lláh containing a mystical interpretation of the body (haykal) of the Manifestation of God…. Haykal is a loan word in Arabic. Its Hebrew cognate hek'l means 'temple', particularly the Jerusalem temple. In Arabic, in addition to meaning a Jewish or Christian temple, it means the body or form of something, particularly the human body or something large. In the Báb's usage, a haykal is a talisman, particularly one in the form of a five-pointed star, which traditions represents the human body. In the Súratu'l-Haykal the primary sense of haykal is the human body, particularly the body of the Manifestation of God, but the meaning 'temple' is also present.”
