 Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce note the spell Lovecraft quotes and describes as a "demon evocation", was actually an incantation allegedly used for treasure hunting.The use of the Yezidi as a devil-worshipping cult, twice implied to be behind the events of the story, seems to have been inspired by E. Hoffmann Price's "The Stranger from Kurdistan".At that time Lovecraft was not aware of their similar use in an occult adventure novel of 1920 by Robert W. Chambers.