[3] The tablet is written in allegorical terms and its main theme is the covenant and man being unfaithful to it.
[2][4] In the tablet, Baháʼu'lláh refers to himself as the "Holy Mariner," uses an "ark" to symbolize the Covenant of God, and symbolized the believers in the covenant as the "dwellers" in the "ark;"[5] he writes that those people who are in the ark are safe and will acquire salvation.
[5] In the tablet, Baháʼu'lláh also alludes to his perceived station as He whom God shall make manifest, a messianic figure predicted by the Báb, and the fate of Subh-i-Azal, Baháʼu'lláh's half-brother who wanted to cause a split in the Bábí community.
[1] It is stated that at this point it was evident to Baháʼu'lláh's followers that their time in Baghdad would be shortly over.
[7] Shortly thereafter, Baháʼu'lláh was summoned by the Ottoman government from Baghdad to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul); before leaving Baghdad, he entered the garden of Ridván, where he publicly stated his claimed prophethood.