- O connoisseur of pearls, listen to a story, that you may distinguish actual seeing from (mere) inference.
- یک حکایت بشنو ای گوهر شناس ** تا بدانی تو عیان را از قیاس
- 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.
- هلال پنداشتن آن شخص خیال را در عهد عمر
- The Fasting-month (Ramadán) came round in ‘Umar's time. Some people ran to the top of a hill,
- ماه روزه گشت در عهد عمر ** بر سر کوهی دویدند آن نفر
- 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!”
- تا هلال روزه را گیرند فال ** آن یکی گفت ای عمر اینک هلال
- As ‘Umar did not see the moon in the sky, he said, “This moon has risen from thy phantasy.
- چون عمر بر آسمان مه را ندید ** گفت کاین مه از خیال تو دمید
- Otherwise, (since) I am a better seer of the heavens (than thou), how is it that I do not see the pure crescent? 115
- ور نه من بیناترم افلاک را ** چون نمیبینم هلال پاک را
- Wet thy hand,” said he, “and rub it on thine eyebrow, and then look up towards the new moon.”
- گفت تر کن دست و بر ابرو بمال ** آن گهان تو بر نگر سوی هلال
- When he wetted his eyebrow, he did not see the moon. “O King,” he said, “there is no moon; it has disappeared.”
- چون که او تر کرد ابرو مه ندید ** گفت ای شه نیست مه شد ناپدید
- “Yes,” said ‘Umar, “the hair of thine eyebrow had become (curved) like a bow and shot at thee an arrow of opinion.”
- گفت آری موی ابرو شد کمان ** سوی تو افکند تیری از گمان
- 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.
- چون یکی مو کج شد او را راه زد ** تا به دعوی لاف دید ماه زد
- Inasmuch as a crooked hair veils the sky, how will it be when all your members are crooked? 120
- موی کج چون پردهی گردون بود ** چون همه اجزات کج شد چون بود