Then came the Sparrow, of feeble body and tender heart, trembling like a flame from head to foot. She said: 'I am dumbfounded and crestfallen. I don't know how to exist, and I am frail as a hair. I have no one to help me and I have not the strength of an ant. I have neither down nor feathers - nothing. How can a weakling like me make her way to the Simurgh? A sparrow could never do it. There is no lack of those in the world who seek this union, but for a being such as I it is not becoming. I do not wish to begin such a toilsome journey for something I can never reach. If I should start out for the court of the Simurgh I should be consumed on the way. So since I am not at all fitted for this enterprise I shall be content to seek here my Joseph in the well. If I find him and draw him out I shall soar with him from the fish to the moon.' The Hoopoe replied: 'O you, who in your despondency are sometimes sad, sometimes gay, I am not deceived by these artful pleas. You are a little hypocrite. Even in your humility you show a hundred signs of vanity and pride. Not another word, sew up your lips and put your foot forward. If you bum, you will burn with the others. And don't compare yourself with Joseph!'

When Joseph was taken, his father Jacob lost his sight because of the tears of blood that flowed from his eyes. The name of Joseph was always on his lips. At last the Angel Gabriel went to him and said: ' If ever again you utter the word ''Joseph'' I will strike your name from the roll of prophets and messengers.' When Jacob received this message from God the name of Joseph was lifted from his tongue, but he did not cease to repeat it in his heart. One night he saw Joseph in a dream, and would have called to him, but remembering God's command, he beat his breast and heaved a sad sigh from his immaculate heart. Then Gabriel came: ' God says that although you have not pronounced the name "Joseph" with your tongue, you have heaved a sigh, and thus destroyed all the effect of your repentance.'