[14] Bahíyyih Khánum's early years were filled with happiness, as she fondly recalled the joy of playing in the beautiful gardens alongside her brother `Abdu'l-Bahá.

According to her own account, Mirza Yahya imposed strict restrictions on her, prohibiting her from playing with other children[17] and preventing a doctor from attending to her newly born brother, who desperately needed medical attention — ultimately resulting in his death.

[21] Shoghi Effendi, reflecting on her teenage years, remarked that she was entrusted with missions that "no girl of her age could, or would be willing to, perform.

"[22] Giving a rare glimpse into the circumstances of her father's declaration of being a messenger of God in the Garden of Ridvan in Baghdad, Bahíyyih Khánum is reported to have said that Baháʼu'lláh stated his claim to his son ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and four others.

[32] Remarking on her role in the 1868 split between Mirza Yahya and Baháʼu'lláh, Shoghi Effendi notes Bahíyyih Khánum was among the most active in encouraging the Bábís to accept the claims of her father.

[36] The populace spoke Arabic, which Bahíyyih Khánum understood, and she overheard them mocking and jeering how the family were to be thrown into the sea or imprisoned in chains.

[37] The family were locked in a small cluster of cells which were covered in dirt and sewage, so much so that Bahiyyih Khánum fainted a number of times, "of my own experience perhaps this is the most awful".

With her father's death in 1892 she was the only surviving member of her family to choose to support her brother when he was named head of the religion in 1892, though first she had to recover from severe mourning which caused her to become thin and feeble for a time.

[45] It was in 1898 that the first Western pilgrims visited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Bahíyyih in Palestine,[46] including Phoebe Hearst, Lua Getsinger, Ella Goodall Cooper, the first African-American Baháʼí Robert Turner, May Maxwell, amongst others.

[1] The pilgrimage profoundly affected Bahíyyih Khánum and was a source of happiness for ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's family in the penal colony.

They recently reached this blessed and luminous Spot and have had the honour to prostrate themselves at His Holy Threshold and to behold the radiant face of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the Centre of the Covenant of Almighty God — may my life be offered up as a sacrifice for His sake.

[53] The portraits of Baháʼu'lláh and the Báb and other relics were likewise kept by her except during World War I, when she along with the rest of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's family, and Americans Edith Sanderson and Lua Getsinger, stayed in the residence of the village head of Abu Sinan.

[55] As "head of the household" Bahíyyih was in control of looking after the numerous pilgrims from the East and West who flocked to visit her and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.

[58] She was given the position of acting head of the religion repeatedly including during ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West between 1910 and 1913 when she was in her 60s, and then again when Shoghi Effendi was away on several trips between 1922 and 1924 when she was in her 70s.

[62] In 1921, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá died and Bahíyyih Khánum sent telegrams, with the assistance of Saichiro Fujita,[63] announcing the death which arrived at, among other places, Wellesley Tudor Pole's home in London where it was read by Shoghi Effendi.

[64][65] As Shoghi Effendi assumed the leadership of the religion, he commented in particular how he felt Bahiyyih Khánum's support during the difficult period following the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.

[71] One letter reads: At the time when Christ rose out of this mortal world and ascended into the Eternal Kingdom, He had twelve disciples, and even of these, one was cast off.

But because that handful of souls stood up, and with selflessness, devotion and detachment, resolved to spread His holy Teachings and to scatter abroad the sweet fragrances of God, disregarding the world and all its peoples, and because they utterly lost themselves in Christ—they succeeded, by the power of the spirit, in capturing the cities of men's hearts, so that the splendour of the one true God pervaded all the earth, and put the darkness of ignorance to flight.

[74] Pilgrims note that she found it hard visiting the grave of her father and the Báb, and needed help to stand and sit.

Our beloved Faith, well nigh crushed by devastating blow of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's unexpected Ascension, now laments passing of last remnant of Baháʼu'lláh, its most exalted member.

[83] Nine months of official mourning were declared for Baháʼís to honour her memory, while personal celebrations were asked to be withheld for a full year.

[21] The first step taken by Shoghi Effendi in creating the administrative Centre of the Baháʼí Faith was the acquisition of land on Mount Carmel in close proximity to the Shrine of the Báb, and the interment of the remains of Bahíyyih Khánum were placed under the Monument of the Greatest Holy Leaf, followed by the transfer of the remains of the Mirza Mihdi and Navváb in December 1939.

The children's book Stories of the Greatest Holy Leaf, adapted by Jacqueline Mehrabi, contains anecdotes about the life of Bahiyyih Khánum.

Bahíyyih was described as having large grey eyes, a slender figure, golden-brown hair and ivory coloured skin "very much like her lovely mother.

Ella Goodall Cooper, an early American Bahá’í, described her as "tall, slender and of noble bearing" and her face as the "feminine counterpart of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's" with "understanding eyes".

Margaret Randall, an American Bahá’í pilgrim, writes in 1919: "her face looked dreadfully tired but her eyes were like the Master's, so alive and expressive.

[88] Bahíyyih held a special place in the heart of Bahá’u’lláh, who not only supported her choice to remain single but also declined any marriage proposals on her behalf.

"[20] Whenever Bahíyyih visited Bahá’u’lláh in the Mansion of Bahjí, he would eagerly stand on his balcony, awaiting the first glimpse of her arrival.

In the later years of her life, when a group of students made a pilgrimage to visit her, Bahíyyih requested them to perform traditional Persian folk songs.

According to Bahá’ís, Bahíyyih was said to have an inner strength,[89] because she had entered imprisonment as an inexperienced girl with little formal education but overcame the difficulties of her life.