There is a verbal resemblance in enunciation, but what (real) relation has heaven (ásmán) to a rope (rísmán)?
اشتباهی هست لفظی در بیان ** لیک خود کو آسمان تا ریسمان
The participation of a word (in several meanings) is always obstructive (to the understanding): the participation of the infidel with the true believer is in the body (alone).
اشتراک لفظ دایم ره‌زنست ** اشتراک گبر و مؤمن در تنست
Bodies are like pots with the lids on: look and see what is in each pot.650
جسمها چون کوزه‌های بسته‌سر ** تا که در هر کوزه چه بود آن نگر
The pot of that body is filled with the Water of Life; the pot of this body is filled with the poison of death.
کوزه‌ی آن تن پر از آب حیات ** کوزه‌ی این تن پر از زهر ممات
If you keep your eye fixed on its contents, you are a (spiritual) king; but if you regard its vessel, you are misguided.
گر به مظروفش نظر داری شهی ** ور به ظرفش بنگری تو گم‌رهی
Know that words resemble this body and that their inward meaning resembles the soul.
لفظ را ماننده‌ی این جسم دان ** معنیش را در درون مانند جان
The bodily eye is always seeing the body; the spiritual eye sees the artful (elusive) soul.
دیده‌ی تن دایما تن‌بین بود ** دیده‌ی جان جان پر فن بین بود
Therefore the man of appearance is misled by the form of the expressions used in the Mathnawí, while they guide the man of reality (to the Truth).655
پس ز نقش لفظهای مثنوی ** صورتی ضالست و هادی معنوی
He (God) hath said in the Qur’án, “This Qur’án with all its heart leads some aright and others astray.”
در نبی فرمود کین قرآن ز دل ** هادی بعضی و بعضی را مضل
God, God! When the gnostic speaks of “wine,” how in the gnostic's eyes should the (materially) non-existent be a (material) thing?
الله الله چونک عارف گفت می ** پیش عارف کی بود معدوم شی