Whereas the momentous consequences of N?ser-e Khosrow's allegiance to Fatimid Ismailism manifest themselves resonantly throughout his rich literary output in both prose and verse, the true-life processes or event(s) which had him profess Ismailaism in the first place were recorded solely by Nbser himself, who clearly cannot pass as a disinterested witness. He committed his spiritual journey to religious truth as he found it embodied in Ismailite doctrine to poetry as well as the ostensibly non-fictional mode of prose. However, the pertinent texts, his Travelogue (Safarname) and the often so-called 'confessional ode,' present the reader with, as here submitted, hitherto unsolved problems of interpretation. While there is broad agreement on the distinctness of any given poetic representation from reality, the self-professed truthfulness of autobiographical prose as encountered in the introduction to Ncser's Travelogue has to date largely muted critical questioning. The majority of modern students, including Alice Hunsberger and even Heinz Halm, have tended to accept the author's stress on suddenness as regards first his departure for Mecca and subsequently his induction into the Fatimid organization of instruction and mission (da'wa). In the paper here summarized, a close reading of Nlser's two variant self-statements will be used to construct an argument for recasting his conversion to Ismailism as a gradual, if mostly unrecorded process. Thus the 'pivotal' dream in the Travelogue will be assigned the function of marking the consummation rather than initiation of a process of conversion which came to fruition in Cairo (pace Halm). The 'confessional ode' will be shown to support this reading once the constraints of--panegyric--poetry are duly taken into account.