How the Arab's wife sewed the jug of rain-water in a felt cloth and put a seal on it because of the Arab's utter conviction (that it was a precious gift for the King).
“Yes,” said the husband, “stop up the mouth of the jug. Take care, for this is a gift that will bring us profit.
Sew this jug in felt, that the King may break his fast with our gift,
For there is no (water) like this in all the world: no (other) water is so pure as this.”
(This he said) because they (people like him) are always full of infirmity and half-blind from (drinking) bitter and briny waters.
The bird whose dwelling-place is the briny water, how should it know where to find in it the clear (and sweet) water?
O thou whose abode is in the briny spring, how shouldst thou know the Shatt and the Jayhún and the Euphrates?
O thou who hast not escaped from this fleeting caravanseray (the material world), how shouldst thou know (the meaning of) “self-extinction” and (mystical) “intoxication” and “expansion”?
And if thou knowest, ’tis (by rote, like the knowledge) handed down to thee from father and grandfather: to thee these names are like abjad.
How plain and evident to all children are abjad and hawwaz, and (yet) the real meaning is far away (hard to reach).
Then the Arab man took up the jug and set out to journey, carrying it along (with him) day and night.
He was trembling for the jug, in fear of Fortune's mischiefs: all the same, he conveyed it from the desert to the city (Baghdád).
His wife unrolled the prayer-rug in supplication; she made (the words) Rabbi sallim (Save, O Lord) her litany in prayer,
Crying, “Keep our water safe from scoundrels! O Lord, let that pearl arrive at that sea!
Although my husband is shrewd and artful, yet the pearl has thousands of enemies.
Pearl indeed! ’Tis the water of Kawthar: ’tis a drop of this that is the origin of the pearl.”
Through the prayers and lamentation of the wife, and through the husband's anxiety and his patience under the heavy burden,
He bore it without delay, safe from robbers and unhurt by stones, to the seat of the Caliphate (the Caliph's palace).
He saw a bountiful Court, (where) the needy had spread their nets;
Everywhere, moment by moment, some petitioner gained (and carried away) from that Court a donation and robe of honour:
’Twas like sun and rain, nay, like Paradise, for infidel and true believer and good folk and bad.
He beheld some people arrayed (with favour) in the sight (of the Caliph), and others who had risen to their feet (and were) waiting (to receive his commands).
High and low, from Solomon to the ant, they (all) had become quickened with life, like the world at the blast of the trumpet (on the Day of Resurrection).
The followers of Form were woven (entangled) in pearls, the followers of Reality had found the Sea of Reality.
Those without aspiration—how aspiring had they become! and those of high aspiration—to what felicity had they attained!
