How a child began to speak amidst the fire and urged the people to throw themselves into the fire.
That Jew brought to that idol a woman with her child, and the fire was blazing.
He took the child from her and cast it into the fire: the woman was affrighted and withdrew her heart from (abandoned) her faith.
She was about to bow down before the idol (when) the child cried, “Verily, I am not dead.
Come in, O mother: I am happy here, although in appearance I am amidst the fire.
The fire is a spell that binds the eye for the sake of screening (the truth); this is (in reality) a Divine mercy which has raised its head from the collar (has been manifested from the Unseen).
Come in, mother, and see the evidence of God, that thou mayst behold the delight of God's elect.
Come in, and see water that has the semblance of fire; (come away) from a world which is (really) fire and (only) has the semblance of water.
Come in, and see the mysteries of Abraham, who in the fire found cypress and jessamine.
I was seeing death at the time of birth from thee: sore was my dread of falling from thee;
(But) when I was born, I escaped from the narrow prison (of the womb) into a world of pleasant air and beautiful colour.
Now I deem the (earthly) world to be like the womb, since in this fire I have seen such rest:
In this fire I have seen a world wherein every atom possesses the (life-giving) breath of Jesus.
Lo, (it is) a world apparently non-existent (but) essentially existent, while that (other) world is apparently existent (but) has no permanence.
Come in, mother, (I beseech thee) by the right of motherhood: see this fire, how it hath no fieriness.
Come in, mother, for felicity is come; come in, mother, do not let fortune slip from thy hand.
Thou hast seen the power of that (Jewish) cur: come in, that thou mayst see the power of God's grace.
’Tis (only) out of pity that I am drawing thy feet (hither), for indeed such is my rapture that I have no care for thee.
Come in and call the others also, for the King has spread a (festal) table within the fire.
O true believers, come in, all of you: except this sweetness (‘adhbí) all is torment (‘adháb).
Oh, come in, all of you, like moths; (come) into this fortune which hath a hundred springtimes.”
(Thus) he was crying amidst that multitude: the souls of the people were filled with awe.
After that, the folk, men and women (alike), cast themselves unwittingly into the fire—
Without custodian, without being dragged, for love of the Friend, because from Him is the sweetening of every bitterness—
Until it came to pass that the (king's) myrmidons were holding back the people, saying, “Do not enter the fire!”
The Jew became black-faced (covered with shame) and dismayed; he became sorry and sick at heart,
Because the people grew more loving (ardent) in their Faith and more firm in mortification (faná) of the body.
Thanks (be to God), the Devil's plot caught him in its toils; thanks (be to God), the Devil saw himself disgraced.
That which he was rubbing (the shame he was inflicting) on the faces of those persons (the Christians) was all accumulated on the visage of that vile wretch.
He who was busy rending the garment (honour and integrity) of the people—his own (garment) was rent, (while) they were unhurt.
