The Hidden Words was revealed by Bahá’u’lláh on the banks of the Tigris River in 1857. It was revealed partly in Persian, and partly in Arabic.

The Hidden Words is referred to as “dynamic spiritual leaven cast into the life of the world for the reorientation of the minds of men, the edification of their souls and the rectification of their conduct”. Baha’u’llah Himself refers to it as “the inner essence” of that which was “revealed unto the Prophets of old” clothed “in the garment of brevity.”