“I don’t want you to feel hurt,” the chief rabbi said. “Some members of my community hold a harsh attitude toward your faith. They recite verses that portray Jews in a negative light. I want to defend you against such views, but as a Jew, I am myself wounded by those expressions. What would you say to that?”

“My dear friend,” the scholar replied, “no believer of good will wishes for you—or anyone like you—to be hurt. The verses you speak of refer to a specific group of Jews in Medina at that time: those who broke their promises, collaborated with enemies, and acted with corruption. They do not refer to all Jews across the world. At the same time, since the Qur’an speaks both to its own era and to all ages, it also warns that people with corrupt tendencies may emerge from among them in the future. And it cautions sincere souls like you—those whose only aim is to live by God’s command—not to be deceived by such groups and to stand against them.

Do you know which prophet is mentioned the most in the Qur’an? Many prophets known to be Jewish—Joseph, Solomon, David, Jonah, Jesus, and others—appear again and again.”

The scholar answered his own question:

“The name of Moses appears one hundred and thirty-six times. The experiences of his people are recounted in different chapters, each highlighting a different aspect of their story. I believe you understand what I mean, my friend. Tell this to your community: we mention your prophets—our prophets—far more often than you might think. We remember their stories and send them our love and respect.”

He paused, then added:

“Another example comes to mind. A Muslim from Medina named Time once committed theft. When the stolen armor was found in his home, he claimed a Jew had brought it there and tried to pin the crime on him.

“Time not only lied and denied it, but he also convinced several men from his tribe to serve as false witnesses. When the witnesses appeared, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) briefly inclined to think Time might be innocent. At that very moment, a verse was revealed: ‘Judge between them according to what Allah has shown you. And do not defend the treacherous.’ (4:105)

“As you see, that verse declared the Jew to be innocent and exposed Time—the Muslim—as a deceiver. I could give many such examples showing that Islam has always stood with innocent Jews.”

The chief rabbi agreed with his scholarly friend; he had found answers not only for his community’s concerns but for his own questions as well. His quiet contemplation was interrupted by Seth’s arrival. Seeing the cardinal and Dr. Wickens beside him, Seth was taken aback. Then he tried to make sense of why he had been summoned.

The chief rabbi began:

“Seth, my son, as you may have guessed, this is about the islanders. My friends and I have reached a shared decision. We have devised a plan to rescue the innocent on the island, and the most critical role—ensuring that the mystical group doesn’t harm them—will fall to you.”

He then explained the details of the plan: how they would mislead the mystical order, how Seth’s role would unfold. After introducing him to Noah, he told Seth that he must assist him on the island, be prepared for whatever surprises they might encounter, and solve them together. His final instruction was this:

“After pretending to shoot Noah, describe those people’s abilities exactly as Noah will guide you beforehand. Most likely, the order will want to separate them. When the time comes to decide who will be sent to which country and which city, steer those tyrants according to the instructions Noah gives you.

“Considering the order’s global influence, they will surely try to place them in critical positions—either in centers of learning or within the higher ranks of one of the divine religions. Keep this in mind and make your decisions with Noah accordingly.”

Noticing the reluctance in Seth’s eyes, the chief rabbi reminded him softly:

“You know my only heir is my daughter.”

Seth understood well what that meant—not only uniting with the woman he loved, Maria, but also inheriting one of the grandest waterfront mansions on the Bosphorus, along with many other properties. What more could he ask for? Wealth and status were all he truly cared about. And once wealth came, status would follow naturally.

“Very well, then,” he said. “As you wish, dear father.”

The chief rabbi pulled him aside and whispered:

“Do not betray me or my friends. If any harm comes to them, you will face the consequences.”

Then he called out to Noah:

“Begin the preparations immediately. And don’t forget—take mines with you, just in case. We cannot predict what you may encounter on that island.”

Seth grew uneasy at these words.

“If there’s any unexpected danger, I plan to turn back at once. I’m warning you now,” he said.

Noah replied with a faint smile:

“There is said to be a Lord who rules the island. He may pose a threat to us, but once we arrive, we’ll decide what to say according to his presence and the superstitions of those people.”

Seth was about to leave when a mischievous thought crossed his mind. Wanting to disrupt the alliance he had just witnessed, he looked first at the cardinal and the chief rabbi, then at the scholar, and asked:

“What if the islanders ask me: ‘Which of the three—Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad (peace be upon him)—holds the highest rank?’ What am I supposed to say?”

Realizing the mischief hidden in the question, the scholar said:

“My son, let me explain, and you may judge for yourself.”

He began:

“There was once a debate among the Christians, Jews, Muslims, and idolaters of Medina. The idolaters said, as they always do, that there is no life after death. But the believers of the three divine religions each insisted, ‘Our prophet will save us; therefore we will not face punishment.’ In other words, they regarded their own prophet as superior to the others and believed they would enter Paradise first, without facing a rigorous reckoning.

“Now, what do you think happened next?” the scholar asked Seth.

“Well, I suppose Muhammad (peace be upon him) must have said the Muslims would be saved first.”

“No,” the scholar replied. “A verse was revealed:

‘It is not according to your wishful thinking, nor the vain hopes of the People of the Book. Whoever does evil will be repaid for it, and he will find no protector or helper besides Allah.’ (4:123)

“As you can see, the message is clear: Do not assume you will enter Paradise because of empty claims. Look to yourselves—do good, keep away from evil, and then you may hope to reach Paradise. What I mean is this: the verse teaches that arguing over which prophet is superior is pointless. The wiser path is for each person to examine themselves.”

Noah stepped in:

“We are not going there to preach Islam. After explaining the belief in Divine Oneness, we can briefly speak of each revealed religion so they may gain some understanding of the world beyond their island.”

Seth felt bitter disappointment at failing to provoke the discord he hoped for, and in his frustration he blamed Noah. With a cold glance, he thought:

“You’ll fall into my hands sooner or later. Then I’ll show you the price of playing the innocent.”

Noah understood the hatred in Seth’s eyes. There was nothing he could do except think to himself:

“May God grant us a good end.”

Dr. Wickens, meanwhile, felt relief in knowing he had managed to protect Newton’s written secret  he carried with him. Newton had valued secrecy throughout his life. He gathered his most important formulas in a personal notebook titled Clavis, Latin for “key.” Some scholars, noting that the 16th-century work Ilm-i Miftah (“The Science of the Key”) by Ibn Hayyam bore a similar name, believed Newton had been influenced by Andalusian Muslim alchemists.

Fearing that Newton’s secret legacy might be stolen along the journey, Dr. Wickens had memorized its most sensitive sections. He later added several critical mathematical calculations and formulas to Clavis, shaping the most precious part of Newton’s secret legacy. According to Newton’s final instructions, he divided these trusts into four parts and gave them to representatives of the three divine religions and of science. In the cardinal he had long known in London, and in the scholar and the chief rabbi he had met in Istanbul, he saw neither the temperament nor the ambition that might inflame their communities through religious or ethnic differences. When he witnessed sincerity and a heartfelt devotion instead of empty rhetoric, he knew he had found the right guardians of faith.

He told them:

“Everyone knows Newton for his work in physics, but almost no one knows his interest in the hidden codes of the sacred scriptures.”

He continued:

“Newton was especially drawn to the prophecies of Daniel in the Old Testament. He explained his reason as follows: ‘I chose the prophecies of Daniel because he is held in the highest esteem by the Jews.’”

In the book where Newton interpreted the prophecies of Daniel, the numbers six hundred sixty-six and one thousand four hundred fifty-three appeared as codes of great significance. Their exact meaning remained uncertain. According to Newton, Jesus would be reborn in the year 1948. The establishment of the State of Israel in that same year increased interest in Newton’s predictions. Another intriguing prophecy claimed that in the year 2370, a religion of peace—rooted in the original principles of Divine Oneness—would be established. Seeing them come to Istanbul, witnessing the harmony between the chief rabbi, the scholar, and the cardinal, and observing how sincerely the four of them worked together for a common purpose, Dr. Wickens began to think that the seeds of the “religion of peace” mentioned by Newton were being planted in this very city.

Newton believed that the year 1453, derived from the Bible and containing hidden codes, pointed to a sacred turning point. In that year, Christians, Muslims, and soon after Jews had all made Istanbul their dwelling place. Muslims and Christians regarded the city as a spiritual center, and the Jews, too, held it in deep reverence. Dr. Wickens remembered that Hagia Sophia had been a significant place of worship for pagans, Christians, and Muslims alike. He felt certain he had deciphered the code behind the number 1453 mentioned by his master. That date marked the moment when Islam, the last of the divine religions, became permanently rooted in Istanbul—signifying the beginning of a future age in which all three revealed faiths would unite against the destruction of spirituality and morality. Even in 1453, despite having just emerged from war, the followers of the divine religions had shown one another profound love and tolerance—an observation that further strengthened Dr. Wickens’s conviction.

Dr. Wickens believed Newton had been mistaken about the year 2370. For if the sincerity he witnessed in these four men—including himself—were to continue with the same strength in their heirs and in their communities, then within just a few centuries the world would no longer be ruled by scholars who used science as a pretext to claim they had defeated God. Instead, it would be shaped by those who understood science as the very law God had established. In such societies—where mind and heart were united—people would taste a kind of paradise even before death. In short, humble, just, charitable, and idealistic souls of different faiths would become the dominant force in an approaching century, and the corrupters who used religion, race, and personal gain as tools of division would be the ones to lose.

Newton also had a special interest in the stories of Solomon. Dr. Wickens had once assumed that the account of Solomon miraculously bringing the throne of Bilqis from thousands of kilometers away was found in the Bible. But in Iznik (Nicæa), when he heard the scholar recite the relevant verses, he realized that the wording in Newton’s notebook had in fact been taken from the Qur’an. Wickens knew Newton had secretly worked not only on the transmission of sound and image, but also on matters related to teleportation—studies he had concealed even from his closest students. Yet Wickens had no knowledge of the final outcomes of these hidden experiments.

He believed that Newton’s inspiration for such work came from the Qur’anic account of the throne of Bilqis appearing instantly before Solomon. The story of the ants—how they spoke to one another and warned their distant companions—had also led Newton to consider the possibility of transmitting sound across great distances. Wickens had even found some of the alchemists’ work on this topic. Although the tower in Harran had been built partly for observing the stars, his master had taught him that its deeper purpose was to transmit sound, image, and even the essence of existence itself to another place.

Through his own research, he had discovered why the exterior walls of the tower were covered with lead and what purpose the two massive magnets beneath the foundation served. He learned that the magnets generated a form of energy, while the lead-lined walls were meant to block external forces and guide the energy within the tower upward in a straight path toward the sky. He had made significant progress, yet he knew he needed much more work to reach a concrete result. He kept asking himself: “Where in the mechanism should I place the enchanted box handed down by the masters—and how should it be used?”

Even while working on the farm, Newton continued taking notes inspired by the events of the universe. Years later, in one of his most important scientific works, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, he described the mathematical principles of natural philosophy and the habit he had cultivated since childhood:

“From phenomena, the forces of nature must be discovered; and with those forces, other events may then be explained.”
In other words, according to Newton’s method, one must first observe the occurrences of the cosmos. From these observations, the laws of nature are deduced, and theories are built upon them.

His book Opticks—which discussed the separation of white light into color spectra, the functioning of the eye, image formation through lenses, the colors of the rainbow, and the construction of the reflecting telescope—became another of his most renowned works.

After publishing that book, he turned his attention to the study of sound. He observed that some materials transmitted heat, while others did not—and that even among those that did, the degree varied. Considering his findings in Opticks, where different transparent substances transmitted light at different rates and produced different color spectra, Newton came to believe that by choosing the right material, energy and sound could be transmitted across great distances.

Newton realized that sound did not travel in straight lines but in waves, for people standing at equal distances from a sound source could hear it with the same clarity even if they were positioned in different places. He also observed that on a riverbank—or in a crowded area where many people were speaking at once—individuals often struggled to hear one another. From this, he understood that multiple sound sources interfered with one another’s waves, and that the best transmission of sound required an enclosed space. Indeed, when he noticed how far sound could travel through a closed tube, it confirmed his conclusion.

But he could not achieve his goal using mere pipes. How else could it be done? Then he realized that the tower itself functioned like a kind of enclosed conduit—an enormous tube lined with lead. With this structure, the energy waves produced by the magnets beneath the tower could carry sound waves upward into the higher layers of the sky. But how could those waves, once in the heavens, be transmitted to another part of the world? And how could they be drawn back down to earth?

One cold day, he saw that the heat from a burning hearth could warm the far end of a room even ten meters away. Once again, the universe had offered him the answer he sought. If air could carry heat, then surely the sound waves riding upon energy waves in the sky could also be carried great distances. That part required no further work. The true problem was how to draw those sound waves back down to the earth—and on this, he had no solution.

Even after attempting to project his voice from a tower he built on high ground near London to another tower he erected upon a rock in the Alps, he had failed to achieve success.

After extensive research and countless trials, Dr. Wickens finally decided how to construct the mechanism inside the tower. By coincidence, Ilius on Twin Island had built an identical device around the same time. The two magnets, the stretched membrane, the conductive wire, and the enchanted box had all been placed in their proper positions. The electric current produced by the mechanism passed through the enchanted box and transformed into a radio-frequency wave. Thus, the voice that left the summit of the Alps traveled thousands of kilometers and reached Twin Island. There, an identical mechanism worked in reverse, converting the radio wave back into sound.

One day, while Dr. Wickens was at the Alpine tower, he returned to London and excitedly reported:

“I’m speaking with someone in the tower. No, it’s not you—but a man named Ilius who says he lives on a distant island. The sound is crackling, and sometimes I can’t understand everything, but most of it comes through. In stormy weather, the sound is even clearer.”

Newton’s heart pounded. He accompanied Dr. Wickens to the tower in the Alps. Despite waiting there for days, he heard nothing. Just as he was beginning to think his assistant had lost his mind from overwork, a storm rolled in—and during that storm, the voice finally came. Yes, faint and wavering though it was, the sound brought tears of joy to Newton’s eyes.

Yet he could not understand it.

How was it that the tower in London remained silent, while he could hear the voice of this man named Ilius?

When Newton learned that Ilius had also built a tower on his island—using knowledge passed down through a different line of alchemical masters—his curiosity grew even deeper. Newton wished to travel to the island himself, to uncover the secret behind this phenomenon and to rescue its inhabitants who were asking for help. Yet he also feared that the mystical order shadowing his every move might discover this invention and use it for sinister purposes. For that reason, he intended to send Dr. Wickens to the island in his place.

Newton had already realized that the mystic order was trying to manipulate him, to draw him into their schemes by inflating his ego. But he knew he must not expose their deception; otherwise, it could cost him his life. Since the mystic order seemed aware of everything, he played along and behaved toward Dr. Wickens exactly as they expected—like an unreachable figure, like a supposed Messiah. His plan was to eventually tell his assistant the whole truth, once he had entrusted him with his scientific legacy. But when Dr. Wickens suddenly disappeared, Newton lost that chance—and only a few days later he was killed, his death disguised as poisoning during an experiment.

Newton’s final finding regarding the transmission of sound was that sound waves differ in magnitude. Because the size and frequency of these waves vary from species to species, humans can hear some animals but not others. Thus, transmitter and receiver needed to be in harmony with one another. Such harmony existed between the Alpine tower and the island tower, but not with the tower in London. Therefore, communication could occur only between the island and the Alps, leaving London forever silent.

There were still matters Newton had been unable to solve. Both the island tower and the Alpine tower had been built upon a siliceous rock rich in jade veins. The most remarkable property of this stone was its ability to absorb and reflect radio sound waves exceptionally well. Centuries later, when Hitler discovered this very property, he occupied Bohemia and constructed a castle atop the jade-bearing rock in Zurich in order to control radio-wave traffic and eavesdrop on enemy communications. The castle was, in truth, a kind of listening station. In the ages following Newton, new discoveries confirmed that energy and sound travel in waves.

The energy generated by the magnets came to be known as an electromagnetic wave. Newton’s insistence that transmitter and receiver must be in harmony could only be fully explained years later. It was eventually discovered that radio waves varied in size and frequency—and that this frequency could be adjusted. Thus, the phenomenon was given its modern name: frequency. The fact that the sound between the Alpine tower and the island tower sometimes came through clearly and sometimes did not—with bursts of static—was due to a frequency mismatch between the transmitting and receiving towers.

As science advanced, it became known that the Earth was surrounded by an atmosphere composed of seven layers. In the ionosphere, the layer dense with ion particles, scientists learned that radio waves and other energy waves could be carried across great distances. This discovery confirmed Newton’s intuition that air could naturally transmit sound waves.

esearchers studying Newton’s life believed that he delayed publishing many of his discoveries for years because he feared criticism and ridicule. Though this was partly true, the deeper reason was his fear that his inventions might fall into the wrong hands and be used for massacres against humanity. For that reason, he refrained from revealing his discovery about the transmission of sound. Another reason, of course, was his unexpected death.

Even so, he had warned his heirs again and again:

they were to keep these discoveries hidden until the day mankind would use them for good, not harm.