Al-Muqanna
Al-Muqannaˤ or the "veiled one" (المقنع) was a Persian prophet who was viewed as a heretic by mainstream Muslims.
Al-Muqannaˤ was an ethnic Persian from Merv named Hashim ibn Hakim, working initially as a clothes pleater. He became a commander for Abū Muslim of Khorasan.
After Abū Muslim was murdered, al-Muqannaˤ claimed to be an incarnation of God and insisted his role had been passed to him from Abū Muslim to whom it was passed on to from ˤAlī to whom it was passed on to from Muhammad.
Al-Muqannaˤ was instrumental to the formation of the Khurramiyya, a sect that claimed Abū Muslim to be the Mahdi or to return with the Mahdi and denied his death.
Al-Muqannaˤ was reputed to wear a veil in order to cover up his beauty; however, the Abbasids claimed that he wore a veil to hide his ugliness, being one-eyed, and bald. His followers wore white clothes, as were their custom contradicting the Abbasids wearing of black. He is reputed to have engaged in magic and quackery to impress his followers that he is the maker of miracles.
Al-Muqannaˤ's followers started raiding towns and mosques of other Muslims and looting their possessions. In response, the Abbasids sent several commanders to crush the rebellion. Al-Muqannaˤ poisoned himself rather than be caught by the Abbasids, who set fire to his house when he was finally on the verge of being captured.
After his death, the sect continued to exist until the 12th century, waiting for al-Muqannaˤ to return again.
In Thomas Moore's poem Lalla Rookh, the Veiled Prophet of Khorasan, or al-Mokanna character, is modelled after al-Muqanna. From this poem, prominent socialites in St. Louis, Missouri took the name for their secret society, the Veiled Prophet Organization. For many years, the organization put on an annual fair and parade called the "Veiled Prophet Fair," which was renamed Fair Saint Louis in 1992. The organization also puts on a debutante ball every year in December called the "Veiled Prophet Ball".
A fictionalized Al-Muqanna was the central character of The Masked Dyer, Hakim of Merv, a 1934 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, and is briefly mentioned in another story fifteen years later, The Zahir, as a past avatar of the titular object.
The Masonic order "The Mystic Order of the Veiled Prophet of the Enchanted Realm", commonly called the MOVPER or "The Grotto" and it's related organization "Daughters of Mokanna" also take their names from this historical figure and uses a representation of him as their insignia.