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2
110-119

  • You will know jasper from pearls (only) at the time when you pass away from (abandon) your phantasy entirely. 110
  • O connoisseur of pearls, listen to a story, that you may distinguish actual seeing from (mere) inference.
  • How in the time of ‘Umar, may God be well-pleased with him, a certain person imagined that what he saw was the new moon.
  • The Fasting-month (Ramadán) came round in ‘Umar's time. Some people ran to the top of a hill,
  • In order to take (the appearance of) the new moon as a good omen, and one of them said, “Look, O ‘Umar, here is the new moon!”
  • As ‘Umar did not see the moon in the sky, he said, “This moon has risen from thy phantasy.
  • Otherwise, (since) I am a better seer of the heavens (than thou), how is it that I do not see the pure crescent? 115
  • Wet thy hand,” said he, “and rub it on thine eyebrow, and then look up towards the new moon.”
  • When he wetted his eyebrow, he did not see the moon. “O King,” he said, “there is no moon; it has disappeared.”
  • “Yes,” said ‘Umar, “the hair of thine eyebrow had become (curved) like a bow and shot at thee an arrow of opinion.”
  • When one hair became crooked, it waylaid him (hindered him from seeing truly), so that, making a false claim, he boasted to have seen the moon.