How the inquirer, for the second time, drew that eminent (saint) into conversation, in order that his condition might be made better known (to the inquirer).
That seeker said, “O thou mounted on the cane, pray, ride thy horse this way for one moment.”
He rode towards him, crying, “Hark, say as quick as you can (what you want), for my horse is very restive and fierce- tempered.
Be quick, lest he kick you: explain clearly what you are asking about.”
He (the inquirer) saw no opportunity to tell his heart's secret: he at once made an evasion and drew him into jesting talk.
He said, “I wish to marry a woman in this street: who is suitable for one like me?”
“There are three kinds of women in the world,” said he: “two of those are a sorrow, and one is the soul's treasure.
The first, when you marry her, is wholly yours; and the second is half yours and half separate (from you);
And the third, know she is not yours at all. You have heard this. Away (with you)!—I start in a trice—
Lest my horse let fly a kick at you, so that you fall and never rise up (again).”
The Shaykh rode off amongst the children, (but) the young man shouted to him once more,
“Come, prithee declare the exposition of this. Thou hast said that these women are of three kinds: pick (them) out.”
He rode towards him and said to him, “The virgin of your choice will be wholly yours, and you will gain freedom from sorrow;
And she that is half yours is the (childless) widow; and she that is nothing (to you) is the married woman with a child:
When she has a child by her first husband, her love and whole heart will go there.
(Now) get away, lest my horse launch a kick, and the hoof of my restive horse land upon you.”
The Shaykh gave a loud cry of jubilation and rode back: he again called the children to him.
That inquirer shouted to him once more, “Come (hither), I have one question left, O sovereign king.”
Said the other, “O king, with such intelligence and erudition (as thou hast), what dissimulation is this? What acting is this? Oh, ’tis a marvel!
Thou transcendest the Universal Intellect in (thy power of) elucidation. Thou art a sun: how art thou hid in madness?”
He replied, “These rascals are proposing to make me Cadi in this their city.
I raised objections, (but) they said to me, ‘Nay, there is none so learned and accomplished as thou.
Whilst thou art in existence, it is unlawful and wicked that any one inferior to thee should cite Prophetic Traditions in the office of Cadi.
Permission is not (given) in the Law, that we should appoint one less than thee as (our) prince and leader.’
By this necessity I was made distraught and mad (in appearance), but inwardly I am just the same as I was.
My intelligence is the (hidden) treasure, and I am the ruin (which covers it); if I display the treasure, (then) I am mad (indeed).
The (real) madman is he that has not gone mad, he that has seen this night patrol and has not gone home.
My knowledge is substantial, not accidental; and this precious (thing) is not for (the purpose of gaining) every (worldly) interest.
I am a mine of candy, I am a plantation of sugar-canes: it is growing from me, and at the same time I am eating (of it).
Since it is (learned) as a bait (for popularity), not for the sake of (spiritual) enlightenment, he (the seeker of religious knowledge) is just as (bad) as the seeker of vile worldly knowledge;
(For) he is seeking knowledge on account of the vulgar and the noble, not in order that he may win release from this world.
Like a mouse, he has burrowed in every direction, since the light drove him (back) from the door (the entrance to the hole) and said, ‘Away!’
Inasmuch as he had no way (of getting out) to the open country and the light, he continued to make (such) an exertion even in that darkness.
If God give him wings, the wings of Wisdom, he will escape from mousiness and will fly like the birds;
But if he seek not wings, he will remain underground with no hope of traversing the path to Simák.
Dialectic knowledge, which is soulless, is in love with (eager for) the countenance of customers;
(But) though it is robust at the time of disputation, it is dead and gone when it has no customer.
My purchaser is God: He is drawing me aloft, for God hath purchased.
My bloodwit (the reward of my self-sacrifice) is the beauty of the Glorious One: I enjoy my bloodwit (as) lawful earnings.
Abandon these insolvent customers: what purchase can be made by a handful of (worthless) clay?
Eat your heart (in love of God), that you may be young always, (and that) your visage (may be rosy) with Divine illumination, like the arghawán.”
O Lord, this gift is not (within) the compass of our work (achievement): verily, (the gift of) Thy grace is (not according to our work, but) according to Thy mysterious grace.
Take our hands (help us); buy (redeem) us from our hands (self-existence); lift the veil (between Thee and us), and do not tear our veil (do not expose us to shame).
Redeem us from this filthy self (nafs): its knife has reached our bones.
Who except (Thee in) Thy bounty, O Loving One, can loose such a heavy lock?
Let us turn our heads from ourselves towards Thee, inasmuch as Thou art nigher unto us than we (unto ourselves).
Even this prayer is Thy gift and lesson (to us); else, wherefore has a rose-bed grown in an ash-pit?
Save through Thy munificence, ’tis impossible to convey understanding and reason into the midst of blood and entrails.
This flowing light (proceeds) from two pieces of fat (the two eyeballs): their waves of light reach up to the sky.
The piece of flesh which is the tongue—from it the flood of Wisdom is flowing, like a stream,
Towards a cavity, whereof the name is “ears,” up to the orchard of the (rational) soul, whereof the fruit is intellections.
Its main course is the highway of the orchard of souls; the orchards and gardens of the world are its branches.
That, that, is the source and fountainhead of joy: quick, recite (the text), (gardens) beneath which flow the rivers.
