How the criers of the Cadi advertised an insolvent round the town.

There was an insolvent person without house or home, who remained in prison and pitiless bondage.

He would unconscionably eat the rations of the prisoners; on account of (his) appetite he was (a burden) like Mount Qáf on the hearts of the people (in the gaol).

No one had the pluck to eat a mouthful of bread, because that snatcher of portions would carry off his entire meal.

Any one who is far from the feast of the Merciful (God) has the eye of a (low) beggar, though he be a sultan.

He (the insolvent) had trodden virtue underfoot; the prison had become a hell on account of that robber of bread.

If you flee in hope of some relief, on that side also a calamity comes to meet you.

No corner is without wild beasts; there is no rest but in the place where you are alone with God.

The corner (narrow cell) of this world's inevitable prison is not exempt from the charges for visitors and (the cost of) housewarming.

By God, if you go into a mouse-hole, you will be afflicted by some one who has the claws of a cat.

Man has fatness from (thrives on) fancy, if his fancies are beautiful;

And if his fancies show anything unlovely he melts away as wax (is melted) by a fire.

If amidst snakes and scorpions God keep you with the fancies of them that are (spiritually) fair,

The snakes and scorpions will be friendly to you, because that fancy is the elixir which transmutes your copper (into gold).

Patience is sweetened by fair fancy, since (in that case) the fancies of relief (from pain) have come before (the mind).

That relief comes into the heart from faith: weakness of faith is despair and torment.

Patience gains a crown from faith: where one hath no patience, he hath no faith.

The Prophet said, “God has not given faith to any one in whose nature there is no patience.”

That same one (who) in your eyes is like a snake is a picture (of beauty) in the eyes of another,

Because in your eyes is the fancy of his being an infidel, while in the eyes of his friend is the fancy of his being a (true) believer;

For both the effects (belief and unbelief) exist in this one person: now he is a fish and now a hook.

Half of him is believer, half of him infidel; half of him cupidity, half of him patience (and abstinence).

Your God has said, “(Some) of you (are) believing”; (and) again, “(Some) of you (are) unbelieving” (as) an old fire-worshipper.

(He is) like an ox, his left half black, the other half white as the moon.

Whoever sees the former half spurns (him); whoever sees the latter half seeks (after him).

Joseph was like a beast of burden in the eyes of his brethren; at the same time in the eyes of a Jacob he was like a houri.

Through evil fancy the (bodily) derivative eye and the original unseen eye (of the mind) regarded him (Joseph) as ugly.

Know that the outward eye is the shadow of that (inward) eye: whatever that (inward) eye may see, this (outward) eye turns to that (eye).

You are of where, (but) your origin is in Nowhere: shut up this shop and open that shop.

Do not flee to the (world of the) six directions, because in directions there is the shashdara, and the shashdara is mate, mate.