The third bird said to the Hoopoe: 'I am full of faults, so how shall I set out on the road? Can a dirty fly be worthy of the Simurgh of the Caucasus? How can a sinner who turns away from the true path approach the King?' The Hoopoe said: 'O despondent bird, do not be so hopeless, ask for grace and favour. If you so lightly throw away the shield your task truly will be difficult.'

A man guilty of many sins repented bitterly and returned to the right path. But in time, his desire for the things of the world returned stronger than ever, and he again surrendered himself to evil thoughts and acts. Then sorrow wrung his heart and reduced him to a miserable state. Again he wished to change his attitude, but had not the strength to do so. Day and night as a grain of wheat in a hot pan, his heart could not keep still, and his tears watered the dust. One morning, a mysterious voice spoke to him: 'Listen to the Lord of the World. When you repented the first time I accepted your penitence. Though I could have punished you I did not do so. A second time when you fell into sin I gave you a respite, and now even in my anger I have not caused you to die. And today, O fool, you acknowledge your perfidy and wish to return to me a third time. Return then, to the Way. I open my door to you and wait. When ydU have truly changed your attitude your sins will be forgiven.'

One night, when the Angel Gabriel was in the Sidrah he heard God pronounce the words of consent, and he said to himself: 'A servant of God at this moment invokes the Eternal, but who can he be? I only know that he must be of great merit, that his body of desire is dead and that his spirit is living.' And at once he set off to find this happy mortal. But though he searched the earth and the islands, the mountains and the plains, he could not find him. So he returned to God, and again heard a favourable response to the prayer. Once more he flew over earth and sea, but at last he had to ask: 'O God, which way will lead me to }Our servant?' God said: 'Go to the country of Rum, and in a certain Christian monastery you will find him.' Gabriel flew off to the monastery" and there he saw the object of celestial favours bowing before an idol. 'O master of the world,' said Gabriel, ' draw aside the veil from this mystery. How can you answer the prayer of an idolworshipper in a monastery?' God said: 'His heart is darkened. He is unaware that he has lost his way. Since he strays through ignorance my loving-kindness pardons him and I have opened the way for him to a high estate.' Then the Most High unloosed the man's tongue so that he could pronounce the name of God. One must not neglect the smallest thing. Renunciation is not bought in a shop; neither can you reach the court of the Most High by paying a small sum.

As a Sufi was hurrying to Baghdad he heard someone say: ' I have a lot of honey which I would sell very reasonably if there were anyone to buy it.' The Sufi said: 'My good fellow, wouldn't you like to give me a little for nothing?' The man angrily replied: 'Go away. Are you mad as well as greedy? Don't you know that one always gets nothing for nothing?' Then an inner voice said to the Sufi: 'Leave this place and I will give you that which money cannot buy: all good fortune and all that you desire. God's mercy is a burning sun which reaches to the smallest atom. God even rebuked the prophet Moses because of an unbeliever.'

One day God said to Moses: 'Korah, sobbing, called you seventy times and you did not reply. If he had called me thus, once, I would have wrested his heart from the pit of polytheism and covered his breast with a vestment of faith. O Moses, you have caused him to perish in a hundred agonies, you have cast him into the earth with disgrace. If you had been his creator you would have been less stern with him.' He who is merciful even to those who are without mercy is highly favoured by compassionate men. If you commit the faults of ordinary sinners you yourself will become one of the wicked.