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  • It chanced that one day he rode with his courtiers to the chase.
  • On the king's highway the king espied a handmaiden: the king was enthralled by her.
  • Forasmuch as the bird, his soul, was fluttering in its cage, he gave money and bought the handmaiden.
  • After he had bought her and won to his desire, by Divine destiny she sickened. 40
  • A certain man had an ass but no pack-saddle: (as soon as) he got a saddle, the wolf carried away his ass.
  • He had a pitcher, but no water could be obtained: when he found water, the pitcher broke.
  • The king gathered the physicians together from left and right and said to them, “The life of us both is in your hands.
  • My life is of no account, (but) she is the life of my life. I am in pain and wounded: she is my remedy.
  • Whoever heals her that is my life will bear away with him my treasure and pearls, large and small.” 45
  • They all answered him, saying, “We will hazard our lives and summon all our intelligence and put it into the common stock.
  • Each of us is a Messiah of a world (of people): in our hands is a medicine for every pain."
  • In their arrogance they did not say, “If God will”; therefore God showed unto them the weakness of Man.
  • I mean (a case in which) omission of the saving clause is (due to) a hardness of heart; not the mere saying of these words, for that is a superficial circumstance.
  • How many a one has not pronounced the saving clause, and yet his soul is in harmony with the soul of it! 50
  • The more cures and remedies they applied, the more did the illness increase, and the need was not fulfilled.
  • The sick girl became (thin) as a hair, (while) the eyes of the king flowed with tears of blood, like a river.
  • By Divine destiny, oxymel increased the bile, and oil of almonds was producing dryness.
  • From (giving) myrobalan constipation resulted, relaxation ceased; and water fed the flames, like naphtha.
  • How it became manifest that the physicians were unable to cure the handmaiden, and how the king turned his face towards God and dreamed of a holy man.
  • When the king saw the powerlessness of those physicians, he ran bare-footed to the mosque. 55
  • He entered the mosque and advanced to the mihráb (to pray): the prayer-carpet was bathed in the king's tears.
  • On coming to himself out of the flood of ecstasy (faná) he opened his lips in goodly praise and prayer,
  • Saying, “O Thou whose least gift is the empire of the world, what shall I say, in as much as Thou knowest the hidden thing?
  • O Thou with whom we always take refuge in our need, once again we have missed the way.
  • But Thou hast said, ‘Albeit I know thy secret, nevertheless declare it forthwith in thine outward act.’” 60
  • When from the depths of his soul he raised a cry (of supplication), the sea of Bounty began to surge.
  • Slumber overtook him in the midst of weeping: he dreamed that an old man appeared
  • And said, “Good tidings, O king! Thy prayers are granted. If to-morrow a stranger come for thee, he is from me.
  • When he comes, he is a skilled physician: deem him veracious, for he is trusty and true.
  • In his remedy behold absolute magic, in his temperament behold the might of God!” 65
  • When the promised hour arrived and day broke and the sun, (rising) from the east, began to burn the stars,
  • The king was in the belvedere, expecting to see that which had been shown mysteriously.
  • He saw a person excellent and worshipful, a sun amidst a shadow,
  • Coming from afar, like the new moon (in slenderness and radiance): he was nonexistent, though existent in the form of phantasy.
  • In the spirit phantasy is as naught, (yet) behold a world (turning) on a phantasy! 70
  • Their peace and their war (turn) on a phantasy, and their pride and their shame spring from a phantasy;
  • (But) those phantasies which ensnare the saints are the reflexion of the fair ones of the garden of God.
  • In the countenance of the stranger-guest was appearing that phantasy which the king beheld in his dream.
  • The king himself, instead of the chamberlains, went forward to meet his guest from the Invisible.
  • Both were seamen who had learned to swim, the souls of both were knit together without sewing. 75
  • The king said, “Thou wert my Beloved (in reality), not she; but in this world deed issues from deed.
  • O thou who art to me (as) Mustafá (Mohammed), while I am like unto ‘Umar—I will gird my loins to do thee service.”
  • Beseeching the Lord, who is our Helper, to help us to observe self-control in all circumstances, and explaining the harmful and pernicious consequences of indiscipline.
  • Let us implore God to help us to self-control: one who lacks self-control is deprived of the grace of the Lord.
  • The undisciplined man does not maltreat himself alone, but he sets the whole world on fire.
  • A table (of food) was coming down from heaven without buying and selling and without speaking and hearing, 80
  • (When) some of the people of Moses cried disrespectfully, “Where is garlic and lentils?”
  • (Straightway) the dishes (of food) and the bread from heaven were cut off: there remained for us the toil of sowing and (labouring with) mattock and scythe.
  • Again, when Jesus made intercession, God sent food and bounty (from heaven) on trays,
  • But once more the insolent fellows omitted to show respect and, like beggars, snatched away the viands.
  • (Although) Jesus entreated them, saying, “This is lasting and will not fail from off the earth.” 85
  • To show suspicion and greed at the table of Majesty is ingratitude.