Jorge Luis Borges, The Masked Dyer, Hakim of Merv (1934, tr. N. T. di Giovanni):

The world we live in is a mistake, a clumsy parody. Mirrors and fatherhood, because they multiply and confirm the parody, are abominations.

Samuel Butler, Erewhon Revisited (1901), chapter XXVIII:

I wish some one would write a book about dreams and parthenogenesis, for that the two are part and parcel of the same story — a brood of folly without father bred — I cannot doubt.

Another connection between the Veiled Prophet and Samuel Butler: Both are notably associated with jihad.