The idol of your self is the mother of (all) idols, because that (material) idol is (only) a snake, while this (spiritual) idol is a dragon.
مادر بتها بت نفس شماست ** ز آن که آن بت مار و این بت اژدهاست
The self is (as) iron and stone (whence fire is produced), while the (material) idol is (as) the sparks: those sparks are quieted (quenched) by water.
آهن و سنگ است نفس و بت شرار ** آن شرار از آب می‌‌گیرد قرار
(But) how should the stone and iron be allayed by water? How should a man, having these twain, be secure?
سنگ و آهن ز آب کی ساکن‌‌شود ** آدمی با این دو کی ایمن شود
The idol is the black water hidden in the jug; know that the self is the fountain.775
بت سیاه‌‌آبه‌‌ست در کوزه نهان ** نفس مر آب سیه را چشمه دان
That sculptured idol is like the black torrent; the idol-making self is a fountain (jetting muddy water) on the Water-way (the Way that leads to the Water of Life).
آن بت منحوت چون سیل سیاه ** نفس بتگر چشمه‌‌ای بر آب راه
A single piece of stone will break a hundred pitchers, but the fountain-water is making jets incessantly.
صد سبو را بشکند یک پاره سنگ ** و آب چشمه می‌‌زهاند بی‌‌درنگ
’Tis easy to break an idol, very easy; to regard the self as easy (to subdue) is folly, folly.
بت شکستن سهل باشد نیک سهل ** سهل دیدن نفس را جهل است جهل
O son, if you seek (to know) the form of the self, read the story of Hell with its seven gates.
صورت نفس ار بجویی ای پسر ** قصه‌‌ی دوزخ بخوان با هفت در
Every moment (there proceeds from the self) an act of deceit, and in every one of those deceits a hundred Pharaohs are drowned together with their followers.780
هر نفس مکری و در هر مکر ز آن ** غرقه صد فرعون با فرعونیان
Flee to the God of Moses and to Moses, do not from Pharaoh's quality (rebellious insolence) spill the water of the Faith.
در خدای موسی و موسی گریز ** آب ایمان را ز فرعونی مریز