On mute eloquence and the understanding of it.

Listen also to what passes between the moth and the candle, and pick out the meaning, O worshipful one.

Albeit there is no speech, there is the inmost soul of speech. Come, fly aloft, do not fly low, like the owl.

He (the player) at chess said, “This is the house of the rook.” “By what way,” said he (the literalist), “did the house come into its hands?

Did it buy the house, or inherit it?”—Happy is he that sped towards the (real) meaning!

A grammarian said, “Zayd has struck ‘Amr.” Said (the fool), “How did he chastise him without any offence (on his part)?

What was ‘Amr's offence, that that rude Zayd struck him, innocent (though he was), as (if he were) a slave?”

He (the grammarian) replied, “This (form of words) is (only) the measure (container) of the meaning signified: take some wheat, for the measure is (to be) rejected.

Zayd and ‘Amr are a device for (showing) the declension: if that (statement that Zayd struck ‘Amr) is untrue, make up with the declension.”

“Nay,” said he, “I don't know about that. How did Zayd strike ‘Amr without (his committing any) crime or fault?”

He (the grammarian) in desperation started a joke and said, “‘Amr had stolen a superfluous wáw.

Zayd became aware, and struck the stealer of it: since he (‘Amr) carried it beyond bounds (transgressed the law), the punishment serves him right.”