The baseness of the foul interpretation given by the fly.
The fly was lifting up his head, like a pilot, on a blade of straw and (a pool of) ass's urine.
“I have called (them) sea and ship,” said he; “I have been pondering over that (interpretation) for a long while.
Look! here is this sea and this ship, and I am the pilot and skilled (in navigation) and judicious.”
He was propelling the raft on the “sea”: that (small) quantity appeared to him illimitable.
That urine was boundless in relation to him: where was the vision that should see it truly?
His world extends (just) as far as his sight reaches; his eye is so big, his “sea” is big in the same proportion.
So with the false interpreter (of the Qur’án): like the fly, his imagination is (foul as) ass's urine and his conception (worthless as) a straw.
If the fly leave off interpreting by (following his own) opinion, Fortune will turn that fly into a humáy.
One who possesses this (Divine) indication (of the true meaning) is not a fly: his spirit is not analogous to his (outward) form.
