Description of the wings of the birds that are Divine Intelligences.
Such-like is the tale of the parrot which is the soul: where is that one who is the confidant of (the spiritual) birds?
Where is a bird, weak and innocent, and within him Solomon with (all) his host?
When he moans bitterly, without thanksgiving or complaint, a noise of tumult falls on (arises in) the Seven Spheres (of Heaven).
At every moment (there come) to him from God a hundred missives, a hundred couriers: from him one (cry of) “O my Lord!” and from God a hundred (cries of) “Labbayka” (“Here am I”).
In the sight of God his backsliding is better than obedience; beside his infidelity all faiths are tattered (worthless).
Every moment he hath an ascension (to God) peculiar to himself: He (God) lays upon his crown a hundred peculiar crowns.
His form is on earth and his spirit in “no-place,” a “no-place” beyond the imagination of travellers (on the mystic Way):
Not such a “no-place” that it should come into thy understanding (or that) a fancy about it should be born in thee every moment;
Nay, place and “no-place” are in his control, just as the four (Paradisal) rivers are in the control of one who dwells in Paradise.
Cut short the explanation of this and avert thy face from it: do not breathe a word (more)—and God knows best what is right.
We return from this (matter), O friends, to the bird and the merchant and India.
The merchant accepted this message (and promised) that he would convey the greeting from her (the parrot) to her congeners.
