کز فضولی من چرا پرسیدمش ** او ز غم پر بود شورانیدمش
Saying, “Why did I impertinently ask him (that question)? He was full of grief: I made him distraught.”
می‌چکید از چشم تر بر خاک آب ** اندر آن هر قطره مدرج صد جواب
From his (the peacock's) moist eyes the water (of tears) was trickling to the earth: in every drop were contained a hundred answers.
گریه‌ی با صدق بر جانها زند ** تا که چرخ و عرش را گریان کند
Sincere weeping touches the souls (of all), so that it makes (even) the sky and heaven to weep.
عقل و دلها بی‌گمان عرشی‌اند ** در حجاب از نور عرشی می‌زیند
Without any doubt, intellects and hearts (spirits) are celestial, (though) they live debarred from the celestial light.
در بیان آنک عقل و روح در آب و گل محبوس‌اند هم‌چون هاروت و ماروت در چاه بابل
Explaining that the intellect and spirit are imprisoned in clay, like Hárút and Márút in the pit of Babylon.
هم‌چو هاروت و چو ماروت آن دو پاک ** بسته‌اند اینجا به چاه سهمناک 620
Like Hárút and Márút, those two pure ones (the intellect and spirit) have been confined here (in this world) in a horrible pit.
عالم سفلی و شهوانی درند ** اندرین چه گشته‌اند از جرم‌بند
They are in the low and sensual world: they have been confined in this pit on account of sin.
سحر و ضد سحر را بی‌اختیار ** زین دو آموزند نیکان و شرار
The good and the evil (alike) learn magic and the opposite of magic from these twain involuntarily;
لیک اول پند بدهندش که هین ** سحر را از ما میاموز و مچین
But first they admonish him, saying, “Beware, do not learn and pick up magic from us:
ما بیاموزیم این سحر ای فلان ** از برای ابتلا و امتحان
We teach this magic, O such and such, for the purpose of trial and probation;
که امتحان را شرط باشد اختیار ** اختیاری نبودت بی‌اقتدار 625
(But thou art free to choose), for probation necessarily involves free-will, and thou canst not have any (effective) free-will without the power (of action).”