  It is only after the king has expressed himself in this way that the sage begins to suggest that the entire thought experiment is parabolical and that the king has, in effect, endorsed the rationality and appropriateness of the sage's opening remarks. The endorsement was in his having responded to the unanticipated diplomatic mission to his court with all its concomitant benefits just as the biblical Israelites responded to the unanticipated mission and extraordinary benefits that came their way, which by their very nature laid the foundation for a special relationship. By providing additional examples about how God is known to be real only from experience or from uninterrupted tradition which is deemed equivalent to it, rather than from the tenuous and inconclusive arguments associated with syllogistic, governmental religions, both the king and the reader are left to work out the specific correspondences between the two hypothetical cases and the claims of philosophy on the one hand, and revealed religion on the other. Even a cursory reading, however, establishes that in both parts of the thought experiment, the king of India represents God, and India, the divine realm. In the first hypothetical case, the justice of India's people seems to represent either a pervasive, intelligible aspect of the cosmos (e.g., motion, causation) which serves as the starting point of cosmological arguments generally, or, more specifically, evidence of intelligent ordering, on which design arguments are typically based. The possible explanations for the justice that prevails would presumably correspond to various philosophical and theological positions that remain to be identified. The key point is that the Khazar king recognizes that there is no compelling evidence or argument to establish that the justice of India's people is due to their king or that they even have a king. Hence, he suspends judgment. In the second hypothetical case, it is clear that the messenger of the king of India is either an angel or a prophet, that the signed letter is most likely the revealed Law, which repeatedly presents God, using his proper name, as its author, and that the medicinal gifts are the divine commandments. However the other elements of the parable might be understood, the key point is that, based on the empirical evidence presented to him, the king is not only prepared to acknowledge the existence of the king of India, but also to recognize the authority of his dominion and obey his order. In effect, the diplomatic mission which the second hypothetical case describes creates a sense of indebtedness and obligation on the part of the recipient which lays the groundwork for a special relationship, such as that of a suzerain and vassal or patron and client. As the dialogue proceeds, it will be helpful to keep in mind both this brief reference to the Indian king's dominion and order as well as the apparently insignificant fact that the king's representative comes from India.