Our souls are leaves for that Mercury (to write on): that white and black (writing) is our standard (criterion).
آن عطارد را ورقها جان ماست ** آن سپیدی و آن سیه میزان ماست
Again, he writes a patent in red and green, that (our) spirits may be delivered from melancholy and despair.
باز منشوری نویسد سرخ و سبز ** تا رهند ارواح از سودا و عجز
Red and green are Spring's cancellation (of winter); in regard (to their significance they are) like the (coloured) lines of the rainbow.1600
سرخ و سبز افتاد نسخ نو بهار ** چون خط قوس و قزح در اعتبار
How reverence for the message of Solomon, on whom be peace, was reflected in the heart of Bilqís from the despicable form of the hoopoe.
عکس تعظیم پیغام سلیمان علیه السلام در دل بلقیس از صورت حقیر هدهد
Hundredfold mercy be on that Bilqís to whom God gave the intellect of a hundred men!
رحمت صد تو بر آن بلقیس باد ** که خدایش عقل صد مرده بداد
A hoopoe brought the letter with the (royal) sign-manual from Solomon—a few eloquent words.
هدهدی نامه بیاورد و نشان ** از سلیمان چند حرفی با بیان
(When) she read those pregnant sayings, she did not look with contempt on the messenger.
خواند او آن نکتهای با شمول ** با حقارت ننگرید اندر رسول
Her body saw him as a hoopoe, (but) her spirit saw him as the ‘Anqá; her senses saw him as a fleck of foam, (but) her heart saw him as the sea.
جسم هدهد دید و جان عنقاش دید ** حس چو کفی دید و دل دریاش دید
Because of these two-coloured (diverse) talismans (appearance and reality) the intellect is at war with the senses, as Mohammed with the likes of Abú Jahl.1605
عقل با حس زین طلسمات دو رنگ ** چون محمد با ابو جهلان به جنگ
The infidels regarded Ahmad (Mohammed) as (only) a man, since they did not see in him (the Prophetic nature which was manifested by the miracle) the moon was cleft asunder.
کافران دیدند احمد را بشر ** چون ندیدند از وی انشق القمر
Throw dust on your sense-perceiving eye: the sensuous eye is the enemy of intellect and religion.
خاک زن در دیدهی حس بین خویش ** دیدهی حس دشمن عقل است و کیش