The River Thames becomes a meeting point between the ordinary city and visions that resist ordinary explanation. Along its Embankment, Alleluia Cone recounts an apparition of mountain-shaped icebergs; later, Gibreel Farishta walks its banks through a night of songs and doubt, then imagines the river as a route into flight.

The Embankment and Alleluia’s Vision

After returning to London, Alleluia tells Gibreel that her visions were not confined to Everest. On an early-morning walk along the Embankment, with thick snow and mist obscuring the view, she saw ten icebergs moving upriver in single file. They resembled the ten highest mountains in the world, arranged in ascending order, with Everest last. As the mist thickened, the icebergs disappeared; Alleluia nevertheless insists that she saw them, and Gibreel accepts her account. The river scene extends the mountain imagery into the city: water takes the shapes of land, while the vision unsettles the distinction between what can be seen and what can be explained.

A Night Along the River

During another episode, Gibreel walks the city streets while Rekha Merchant floats above the ground on her carpet and sings to him. The streets remain stable and ordinary, in contrast to the apparition accompanying him. He reaches the river and sits on a bench beneath Cleopatra’s Needle, whose cast-iron supports are shaped like camels. There he closes his eyes as Rekha sings songs of love and loss. The riverbank gives their encounter a fixed urban setting, but Rekha’s presence turns the walk into a contest over whether Gibreel will accept her appeal.

Doubt, Rejection, and the Promise of Flight

At dawn, Gibreel rejects Rekha’s claim to spiritual authority and refuses to bargain with her. He sees her apparition vanish, and takes its disappearance as proof that he has passed a test. His relief develops into certainty that his enemies’ influence has been broken and that his capacity for flight is returning. With the river and its bridges nearby, he imagines stepping from a parapet or bridge and soaring above the water without touching land. He then begins enlarging himself, expecting to appear to the city as an archangel on the western horizon. The Thames thus marks the setting for a decisive shift in Gibreel’s conviction, though the evidence here presents his anticipated revelation, not its outcome.