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4
1075-1124

  • If there be not the power and dominion of Pharaoh, whence shall Hell obtain nutriment? 1075
  • Fatten him, then kill him, O Butcher; for the dogs in Hell are without food.
  • If there were no adversary and enemy in the world, then the anger in men would die.
  • That anger is Hell: it needs an adversary that it may live; else Mercy would kill it.
  • Then clemency would remain without any vengeance or evil: then how would the perfection of Kingship be (manifested)?
  • Those disbelievers have made a laughing-stock of the parables and clear exposition of them that glorify (God). 1080
  • Make (them) a laughing-stock, if thou wishest (O disbeliever): how long wilt thou live, O carcase, how long?
  • Rejoice, O lovers (of God), in supplication at this same door, for it is opened today.
  • Every pot-herb, (such as) garlic and caper, has a different bed in the garden.
  • Each with its own kind in its own bed drinks moisture (is watered) for the purpose of becoming mature.
  • Thou, who art a saffron-bed, be saffron and do not mix with the others. 1085
  • Drink the water, O saffron, that thou mayst attain to maturity: thou art saffron, thou wilt attain to that halwá (sweetmeat).
  • Do not put thy muzzle into the bed of turnips, for it (the turnip) will not agree with thee in nature and habit.
  • Thou art planted in one bed, it (the turnip) in another bed, because God's earth is spacious,
  • Particularly that earth (the unseen world) where, on account of its breadth, demon and genie are lost in their journey.
  • In (seeking to measure) those seas and deserts and mountains imagination and fancy fail entirely. 1090
  • In (comparison with) the deserts thereof, this desert (the material world) is like a single hair in a full sea.
  • The still water whose course is hidden is fresher and sweeter than running brooks,
  • For, like the (vital) spirit and the (rational) soul, it hath within itself a hidden course and a moving foot.
  • The auditor is asleep: cut short (conclude) the address: O preacher, do not draw this picture on water.
  • Arise, O Bilqís, for ’tis a keen (busy and lucrative) market: flee from these vile wretches who ruin (the spiritual) trade. 1095
  • O Bilqís, arise now with free-will, ere Death appear in his sovereign might.
  • After that, Death will pull thy ear (torment thee) in such wise that thou wilt come in agony, like a thief to the magistrate.
  • How long wilt thou be (engaged in) stealing shoes from these asses? If thou art going to steal, come and steal a ruby!
  • Thy sisters have gained the kingdom of everlasting life; thou hast won the kingdom of misery.
  • Oh, happy he that escaped from this kingdom, for Death makes this kingdom desolate. 1100
  • Arise, O Bilqís! Come, behold for once the kingdom of the Sháhs and Sultans of the (true) Religion.
  • He (such a king) is seated inwardly (in spirit) amidst the rose-garden (of union with God); outwardly (in the body) he is acting as a hádí amongst his friends.
  • The garden is going with him wherever he goes, but it is (always) being concealed from the people.
  • The fruit is making entreaty, saying, “Eat of me”; the Water of Life is come, saying, “Drink of me.”
  • Make a circuit of heaven without wing and pinion, like the sun and like the full-moon and like the new moon. 1105
  • Thou wilt be moving, like the spirit, and (there will be) no foot; thou wilt be eating a hundred dainties, and (there will be) none chewing a morsel.
  • Neither will the leviathan, Pain, dash against thy ship, nor will ugliness appear in thee from dying.
  • Thou wilt be sovereign, army, and throne, all together: thou wilt be both the fortunate and Fortune.
  • (Even) if thou art fortunate and a powerful monarch, (yet) Fortune is other than thou: one day Fortune goes,
  • And thou art left destitute like beggars. Be thou thine own fortune, O elect one! 1110
  • When thou art thine own fortune, O man of Reality, then how wilt thou, who art Fortune, lose thyself?
  • How wilt thou lose thyself, O man with goodly qualities, when thy Essence has become thy kingdom and riches?
  • The rest of the story of Solomon, on whom be peace: how he built the Farther Mosque (the Temple of Solomon) by instruction and inspiration from God, (given to him) for wise purposes which He (only) knows; and how angels, demons, genies, and men lent visible aid.
  • (God said) “O Solomon, build the Farther Mosque, the army of Bilqís has come into (has adopted) the (ritual) prayer.”
  • When he laid the foundation of that Mosque, genies and men came and threw themselves into the work,
  • One party from love, and another company unwillingly, just as God’s servants (do) in the way of obedience (to Him). 1115
  • The folk (of the world) are (like) demons, and desire is the chain dragging them to shop and crops.
  • This chain is (the result) of being afraid (of poverty) and crazed (with worldliness): do not regard these folk as unchained.
  • It drags them to earning and hunting; it drags them to the mine and the seas.
  • It drags them to good and to evil: God hath said, “On her neck a cord of palm-fibre.
  • We have put the cordon their necks: We have made the cord (to consist) of their natural dispositions. 1120
  • There is none ever, (be he) defiled or (be he) recovered (from foul disease), but his fortune is on his neck
  • Your greed for evil-doing is like fire: the live coal (the evil deed) is (made) pleasing by the fire’s pleasing hue.
  • The blackness of the coal is hidden in the fire: when the fire is gone, the blackness becomes evident.
  • By your greed the black coal is made live: when the greed is gone, that vicious coal remains.