Dear Sir
You will kindly excuse my adding a few lines to what I have already said, for I am afraid I have not expressed my meaning clearly enough.
I do not of course depend only on the name of the Hatti temple for that of the god Ni. In III. 67 he is named with an Akkadian synonym, which I cannot explain, Dar-tu?-gal-la. In 68 he is “lord of Im or Muru“ and “husband of [illegible],” and we have another name for him Nin mur (glossed Ur). In II.60 the god of Im is Nin Kattin, which appears as the equivalent of Kudur, and is followed by Bar as a synonym in II. 57; (that it is a synonym, and not “iron” here, you will see by comparing it with the forgoing lines). The inscription I referred to shows us Ni.ni also as the name of a god, and I think it appears as the second element in the name of one of the primitive Chaldæan Kings, on the fragments published by Mr Smith.
I do not think we can refuse to recognize divine names in ni & ni.ni of the syllabary, equated to ili on one hand & to yo.a or i and i.i on the other. The usual explanation of ײ, to which you refer, does not seem to me so simple & natural, x as that which the syllabary affords, and which I prefer on that account.
Two Kings of Assyria built temples in imitation of one in the land of Hatti, which must have been a very remarkable one for them to have chosen it for a model. There is no reason to suppose that there was any temple in Western Asia, in their time, comparable to that of Solomon.
The temple at Warka is called Bit- & Bit-hili (in the dative); the Hatti temple is Bit-hila – (in the accusative, if declined) and the Samaritan text explains Bit-hila. The god of the former is Na i:e: Anu; the god of the latter is Ni i:e: Yau. The Assyrian spelling of Hebrew names shows that Yau is the name of the God of Israel, and I think I am justified in my conviction that the Hatti temple was his, the grand building of Solomon.
If you cannot agree with me on these points, I am glad that you admit the probability of my suggestions with regard to the hidden god. There is much more, of course to be said on these. You see the explanation of Ninipi name Kudur, Nin Kattin points in the same direction for ררק & ןרכ ([illegible]:) equally have the sense of “veiling” or “covering”, and ררק of “enclosing”. There the association of the ideas of the tabernacles of Elam & Israel, leads us to והינפצ& ןןפצ־לעכ &c.
Yours very truly
D. H. Haigh
xE:gr: where ײ is followed by Eloha in the revelation of the name in Exodus, representing הורי Elohi of the Hebrew text, this explanation seems different.