بخش 139 - وصیت کردن آن شخص کی بعد از من او برد مال مرا از سه فرزند من کی کاهل‌ترست

Long ago a certain person, in giving injunctions on his death-bed, had spoken (as follows)—

(For) he had three sons like three moving cypresses: to them he had devoted his (vital) soul and his (rational) spirit.

He said, “Whichever of these three is the laziest, let him take all the goods and gold in my possession.”

He told the cadi and enjoined him strictly: after that, he drained the winecup of death.

The sons said to the cadi, “O noble sir, we three orphans will not depart from his decision.

We are like Ishmael: we will not recoil from our Abraham though he is offering us in sacrifice.”

The cadi said, “Let each one (of you), using his intelligence, give some account of his laziness,

That I may perceive the laziness of each and know beyond any doubt (how stands) the case of every one (of you).”

The gnostics are the laziest folk in the two worlds, because they get their harvest without ploughing.

The vulgar do not see God's working and (therefore) never rest from toil at morn or eve.

’Tis unquestionable that every tongue is a curtain over the heart: when the curtain is moved, the mysteries (hidden behind it) reach us.

A little curtain like a slice of roast-meat conceals the forms of a hundred suns.

Even if the oral explanation is false, yet the scent (the impression produced by the speaker) makes one acquainted with his veracity or falsehood.

The scents of truth and fool-catching (plausible) falsehood are apparent in the breath, like musk and garlic.

If you cannot distinguish a (sincere) friend from a double-hearted person, complain of your own rotten sense of smell.

The voices of poltroons and brave courageous men are as distinct as the characteristics of the fox and the lion.

Or, (again), the tongue is just like the lid of a cooking-pot: when it is moved you know what sort of food is inside;

(But) one whose sense (of smell) is keen can tell by the vapour (issuing from the closed pot) whether it is a pot of sweetmeat or sour sikbáj (stew flavoured with vinegar).

When a man taps a new pot with his hand at the time when he is buying it, he detects the cracked one (by its sound).

He (one of the three brothers) said (to the cadi), “I know a man at once by his mouth (speech); and if he do not speak, I know him within three days.”

The second said, “I know him if he speak, and if he do not speak, I engage him in conversation.”

He (the cadi) said, “(But) if he has (already) heard of this device (of yours), he will close his lips and take refuge in silence.”