Tobo Tree

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There is a sacred mountain in Iran known as KohiGabr,
"mountain of the fire worshippers." In
ancient Persia, before the advent of Islam, the fire
worshippers were the people who would ritually
drink haoma (cf. Peganum harmala). A ruin at the
peak of the mountain is thought to once have been
a Zoroastrian fire temple (cf. Ephedra spp.):
Concentrated magical essence has remained
in this place, and an army of especially gifted
genies dwells there. It is said that the "power"
causes people who wish to approach the spot
to shrink back. . . . Stories relate how those
who climbed Kohi returned as madmen or
cripples or wasted away. (1. Shah 1994, 153*)
We do not know what really transpired on this
mountain. But it was associated both with other
places of power and with certain psychoactive

substances:

Not far from this place, there are other
mountains that are also linked to magical
concepts. Here the fire-worshipping
magicians once made offerings of fruit to
placate certain spirits and to entice them into
captivity so that they would obey their
commands. Anyone who wanted to have a
wish fulfilled would write it down and place it
in a bowl filled with fruit, which the magicians
would then take up the mountain. At the peak
of one such mountain grew the tobo tree, the
tree of eternal bliss. It is said to resemble the
tree that stands at the right side of Allah in
paradise. Good fairies carry the great
sufferings and fears to this place, where they
are purified so that the sufferers will be freed
from their afflictions. (I. Shah 1994, 153 f.*)
The tobo tree is presumably some type of
psychoactive plant that was identified with the tree

of knowledge.