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2
1596-1645

  • When you see the leaves of your spirit yellow and black; how know you not the anger of the King?
  • The King's sun, in the (zodiacal) sign of reproach, makes faces black as a piece of roasted meat.
  • Our souls are leaves for that Mercury (to write on): that white and black (writing) is our standard (criterion).
  • Again, he writes a patent in red and green, that (our) spirits may be delivered from melancholy and despair.
  • Red and green are Spring's cancellation (of winter); in regard (to their significance they are) like the (coloured) lines of the rainbow. 1600
  • 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.
  • Hundredfold mercy be on that Bilqís to whom God gave the intellect of a hundred men!
  • A hoopoe brought the letter with the (royal) sign-manual from Solomon—a few eloquent words.
  • (When) she read those pregnant sayings, she did not look with contempt on the messenger.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Throw dust on your sense-perceiving eye: the sensuous eye is the enemy of intellect and religion.
  • God has called the sensuous eye blind; He has said that it is an idolater and our foe,
  • Because it saw the foam and not the sea, because it saw the present and not to-morrow.
  • The master of to-morrow and of the present (is) before it; (yet) of a (whole) treasure it sees only a groat. 1610
  • (If) a mote bring a message from yonder Sun, the sun would become a slave to that mote.
  • The drop that has become an envoy from the Sea of Unity— the seven seas would be captive to that drop.
  • If a handful of earth become His courier, His heavens will lay their heads (in homage) before His earth.
  • Since the earth of Adam became God's courier, God's angels lay their heads (in worship) before His earth.
  • Wherefore (was it), pray, that heaven was rent asunder? Because of one (spiritual) eye that an earthly creature opened. 1615
  • Earth, from its grossness, settles beneath water; (but) see how earth has sped beyond the empyrean!
  • Know, then, that the subtlety (of water) is not (derived) from the water: ’tis only the gift of the Bounteous Originator.
  • If He make air and fire low (in place), and if He let the thorn surpass the rose,
  • He is the Ruler and (the One who said) God doeth what He willeth: from the very self of pain He raises the remedy.
  • If He make air and fire low (in place), and make (them assume the qualities of) darkness and grossness and heaviness, 1620
  • And if He make earth and water high (in place), and make the path of heaven (to be) traversed by foot—
  • Then it has become certain that Thou exaltest whomso Thou wilt: He (God) said to an earthly creature, “Unfold thy wings.”
  • To the creature of fire He said, “Go, become Iblís: begone under the Seventh Earth with (thy) imposture!
  • O earthly Adam, go thou above (the star) Suhá; O fiery Iblís, go to (the bottom of) the Earth.
  • I am not the four temperaments or the first cause, I am ever remaining in (absolute) control. 1625
  • My action is uncaused and upright (independent): I have (the power of) predetermination, (I have) no cause, O infirm one.
  • I alter My custom at the time (I choose): at the time (I will) I lay the dust (that rises) in front.
  • I say to the sea, ‘Hark, be full of fire!’ I say to the fire, ‘Go, be a rose-garden!’
  • I say to the mountain, ‘Be light as wool!’ I say to heaven, ‘Be rent asunder before the eye!’
  • I say, ‘O sun, be joined to the moon!’ I make them both like two black clouds. 1630
  • We make dry the fountain of the sun: by Our art We turn into musk the fountain of blood.”
  • Sun and moon (shall be) like two black oxen: God will fasten a yoke upon their necks.
  • How a philosopher showed disbelief at the recitation of (the text), “if your water shall have sunk into the ground.”
  • A teacher of Qur’án-recitation was reading from the page of the Book, “(if) your water (shall have) sunk into the ground: (that is, if) I stop the water from (reaching) the spring,
  • And hide the water in the depths, and make the springs dry and a place of drought,
  • Who shall bring the water to the spring again except Me who have no like, the Gracious, the Glorious?” 1635
  • A contemptible philosopher and logician was passing beside the school at that moment.
  • When he heard the verse (of the Qur’án), he said in disapproval, “We bring the water (back) with a mattock;
  • With strokes of the spade and (with) the sharpness of the axe we bring the water up from below.”
  • At night he fell asleep and saw (in dream) a lion-hearted man (who) gave (him) a blow on the face and blinded both his eyes,
  • And said, “O wretch, if you are speaking the truth, bring up some light with an axe from these two springs of vision.” 1640
  • At (dawn of) day he jumped up and found (he had) two blind eyes: from both his eyes the overflowing light had vanished.
  • If he had moaned and asked pardon (of God), the departed light would have appeared (again) through (God's) kindness;
  • But (the power of) asking pardon, also, is not in (our) hands: the savour of repentance is not the dessert of every inebriate.
  • The wickedness of (his) actions and the disastrousness of (his) denial (of the Truth) had barred the way of repentance to his heart.
  • His heart became in hardness as the face of a rock: how should repentance cleave it for sowing? 1645