- 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
- Since your understanding is (only of) the Devil's wine, how should you have any conception of the wine of the Merciful (God)?
- فهم تو چون باده‌ی شیطان بود ** کی ترا وهم می رحمان بود
- These twain—the minstrel and the wine—are partners: this one quickly leads to that, and that one to this.
- این دو انبازند مطرب با شراب ** این بدان و آن بدین آرد شتاب