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6
115-139

  • Every (material) star hath its house on high: our star is not contained in any house. 115
  • How should that which burns (transcends) place (spatial relations) enter into space? How should there be a limit for the illimitable light?
  • But they (the mystics) use a comparison and illustration, in order that a loving feeble-minded man may apprehend (the truth).
  • ’Tis not a simile, but ’tis a parable for the purpose of releasing (melting) the frozen intellect.
  • The intellect is strong in the head but weak in the legs, because it is sick of heart (spiritually decayed) though sound of body (materially flourishing).
  • Their (the unspiritual men's) intellect is deeply involved in the dessert (pleasures) of this world: never, never do they think of abandoning sensuality. 120
  • In the hour of pretension their breasts are (glowing) like the orient sun, (but) in the hour of pious devotion their endurance is (brief) as the lightning.
  • A learned man who shows self-conceit in (displaying) his talents is faithless as the world at the time for keeping faith.
  • At the time when he regards himself (with pride) he is not contained in the world: he has become lost in the gullet and belly, like bread.
  • (Yet) all these (evil) qualities of theirs may become good: evil does not remain when it turns to seeking good.
  • If egoism is foul-smelling like semen, (yet) when it attains unto the spirit (spirituality) it gains light. 125
  • Every mineral that sets its face towards (aspires to evolve into) the plant (the vegetative state)—life grows from the tree of its fortune.
  • Every plant that turns its face towards the (animal) spirit drinks, like Khizr, from the Fountain of Life.
  • Once more, when the (animal) spirit sets its face towards the (Divine) Beloved, it lays down its baggage (and passes) into the life without end.
  • How an inquirer asked (a preacher) about a bird that was supposed to have settled on the wall of a city—“Is its head more excellent and estimable and noble and honourable or its tail?”—and how the preacher gave him a reply suited to the measure of his understanding.
  • One day an inquirer said to a preacher, “O thou who art the pulpit's most eminent expounder,
  • I have a question to ask. Answer my question in this assembly-place, O possessor of the marrow (of wisdom). 130
  • A bird has settled on the city-wall: which is better—its head or its tail?”
  • He replied, “If its face is to the town and its tail to the country, know that its face is better than its tail;
  • But if its tail is towards the town and its face to the country, be the dust on that tail and spring away from its face.”
  • A bird flies to its nest by means of wings: the wings of Man are aspiration, O people.
  • (In the case of) the lover who is soiled with good and evil, do not regard the good and evil; (only) regard the aspiration. 135
  • If a falcon be white and beyond compare, (yet) it becomes despicable when it hunts a mouse;
  • And if there be an owl that has desire for the king, it is (noble as) the falcon's head: do not regard the hood.
  • Man, no bigger than a kneading-trough (scooped in a log), has surpassed (in glory) the heavens and the aether (the empyrean).
  • Did this heaven ever hear (the words) We have honoured which this sorrowful Man heard (from God)?