(6) Speech said: ' Verily, wherein I am the most excellent, therein are you the most excellent/ ' Verily, wherein I am a firm basis therein are you a firm basis/ said the eye. c Verily, wherein I am attainment, therein are you attain- ment,' said the ear. said the mind. ( Verily, wherein I am procreation, therein are you procrea- tion/ said the semen. f If such I anij what is my food? what is my dwelling? ' flying insects — that is your food. Water is your dwelling/ Verily, what is not food is not eaten; what is not food is not taken by him who thus knows that [i.e. water] as the food (anna) of breath (ana). Those who know this, who are versed in sacred learning (srotriya), when they are about to eat, take a sip; after they have eaten, they take a sip. So, indeed, they think they make that breath (ana) not naked (anagna).

(6) Then he touches it, saying: c Thou art the moving. Thou art the glowing. Thou art the full. Thou art the steadfast. Thou art the sole resort. Thou art the sound hin that is made. Thou art the making of the sound hin} Thou ait the Loud Chant (udglthd). Thou art the chanting. Thou art that which is proclaimed. Thou art that which is proclaimed in the antiphone. Thou art the flaming in the moist. Thou art the pervading. Thou art surpassing. Thou art food. Thou art light. Thou art destruction. Thou art the despoiler.'

(6) The light in which was smiling my own treasure Which there I had discovered, flashed at first As in the sunshine doth a golden mirror; Then made reply: "A conscience overcast Or with its own or with another's shame, Will taste forsooth the tartness of thy word; But ne'ertheless, all falsehood laid aside, Make manifest thy vision utterly, And let them scratch wherever is the itch; For if thine utterance shall offensive be At the first taste, a vital nutriment 'Twill leave thereafter, when it is digested. This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind, Which smiteth most the most exalted summits, And that is no slight argument of honour. Therefore are shown to thee within these wheels, Upon the mount and in the dolorous valley, Only the souls that unto fame are known; Because the spirit of the hearer rests not, Nor doth confirm its faith by an example Which has the root of it unknown and hidden, Or other reason that is not apparent."

(6) Then he said: ' The boon acceptable to me is this: — Pray tell me the word which you spoke in the presence of the young man.'

(6) "Rueful to thee the thirst be wherewith cracks Thy tongue," the Greek said, "and the putrid water That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes." Then the false-coiner: "So is gaping wide Thy mouth for speaking evil, as 'tis wont; Because if I have thirst, and humour stuff me Thou hast the burning and the head that aches, And to lick up the mirror of Narcissus Thou wouldst not want words many to invite thee." In listening to them was I wholly fixed, When said the Master to me: "Now just look, For little wants it that I quarrel with thee." When him I heard in anger speak to me, I turned me round towards him with such shame That still it eddies through my memory.

(34) Thou art as reason, we like the tongue; 'Tis reason that teaches the tongue to speak. Thou art as joy, and we are laughing; Our every motion every moment testifies, So the revolution of the millstone, so violent, O Thou who art above our conceptions and descriptions, Dust be on our heads, and upon our similitudes of Thee! Yet Thy slaves never cease devising images of Thee; They cry to Thee always, "My life is Thy footstool!" Like that shepherd who cried," O Lord!

(41) Verily my singing His praise were dispraise, For 'twould prove me existent, and existence is error. Can I describe my separation and my bleeding heart? Nay, put off this matter till another season." He said, " Feed me, for I am an hungered, And at once, for 'the time is a sharp sword.' O comrade, the Sufi is 'the son of time present.' It is not the rule of his canon to say, 'To-morrow.' Can it be that thou art not a true Sufi? Ready money is lost by giving credit."

(11) Those two exalted ones have found exalted science, And rivaled the very angels in intellect; O humble and simple and despised one, Arise and eat of the banquet of the divine sweets!" They said to him, "Then you have been gluttonous; Well indeed! you have eaten all the sweets!" He answered, "When my sovereign lord commanded me, Who am I that I should abstain from obeying? Would you, O Jew, resist the commands of Moses If he bade you do something, either pleasant or not?

(1) A king once saw a man, who, though clad in rags was working in the way of self-perfection. He called him and asked: 'Who is the better off, you or I?' The man said: 'O ignorant one, beat your breast and hold your tongue. Who praises himself does not understand the meaning of words; but this I must say, there can be no doubt that a man such as I is a thousand times better off than a man such as you. With not even the taste of religion, your dog of desire has reduced you to the status of an ass. He is your master and rides you on a bridle pulling your head this way and that. You do all that he commands. You are a non-entity, and fit for nothing, whereas I who know the secrets of the heart have made of this dog, my ass to ride upon. Your dog rules you, but if you will make of it an ass you are then as I, and a hundred times better off than your fellows.'

(1) While I was doubting for my vision quenched, Out of the flame refulgent that had quenched it Issued a breathing, that attentive made me, Saying: "While thou recoverest the sense Of seeing which in me thou hast consumed, 'Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compensate it. Begin then, and declare to what thy soul Is aimed, and count it for a certainty, Sight is in thee bewildered and not dead; Because the Lady, who through this divine Region conducteth thee, has in her look The power the hand of Ananias had." I said: "As pleaseth her, or soon or late Let the cure come to eyes that portals were When she with fire I ever burn with entered. The Good, that gives contentment to this Court, The Alpha and Omega is of all The writing that love reads me low or loud." The selfsame voice, that taken had from me The terror of the sudden dazzlement, To speak still farther put it in my thought; And said: "In verity with finer sieve Behoveth thee to sift; thee it behoveth To say who aimed thy bow at such a target."

(23) If it then hold itself dear, it is an infidel; Wherefore 'tis unlawful for the stone then to say 'I, Because it is entirely in darkness and nothingness." Pharaoh said, "I am the Truth," and was laid low. Mansur Hallaj said, "I am the Truth," and escaped free.' Pharaoh's "I" was followed by the curse of God; Mansur's "I" was followed by the mercy of God, O beloved! Because Pharaoh was a stone, Mansur a ruby; Pharaoh an enemy of light, Mansur a friend. O prattler, Mansur's "I am He" was a deep mystic saying, Expressing union with the light, not mere incarnation.

(14) I saw in my sleep what I will now say with a tongue of flesh and with the breath of my mouth: which the Great One has given to men to converse therewith and understand with the heart.

(111) They say, "What is this thou ridest on, O master?" He says, "True, 'tis a steed; but where is mine?" They say, "Look to thyself, O rider; thy steed is there." The real Soul is lost to view, and seems far off; Thou art like a pitcher with full belly but dry lip; How canst thou ever see red, green, and scarlet Unless thou seest the light first of all? When thy sight is dazzled by colors, But when night veils those colors from thee, As there is no seeing outward colors without light,

(81) That in lieu of one thou may'st see a thousand joys, For by quenching the light the soul is rejoiced, Whoso to display his devotion renounces the world, The world is ever with him, before and behind." In one 'twas said, "Whatsoever God has given thee In His creation, that He has made sweet to thee; Yea, pleasant to thee and allowable. Take it, then, And cast not thyself into the pangs of abstinence." In one 'twas said, "Give up all thou possessest, For to be ruled by covetousness is grievous sin."

(101) He answered, 'The proof is within my heart, Yea, my proofs are hidden in my heart. From weakness of vision you see not the new moon; If I see it, be not angry with me!' Much talk followed, and the people were perplexed Then the first said, 'O friend, within me is a proof I hold it for certain, and the sign of certainty Know this proof is not to be expressed in speech, The secret I labor to express is not revealed When the tears course down my cheeks,

(6) The Eye went off. Having remained away a year, it came back and said: ' How have you been able to live without me?' They said: ' As the blind, not seeing with the eye, but breathing with breath, speaking with speech, hearing with the ear, knowing with the mind, procreating with semen. Thus have we lived.' The eye entered in.

(110) Inasmuch as thou art acquainted with the Master of all; Be a man, and not another man's beast of burden! Follow thine own way and lose not thy head!" In one 'twas said, "All we see is One. Whoever says 'tis two is suffering from double vision." In one 'twas said, "A hundred are even as one." Each scroll had its contrary piece of rhetoric, In form and substance utterly opposed to it; This contrary to that, from first to last,

A king purchased two slaves, one extremely handsome, and the other very ugly. He sent the first away to the bath, and in his absence questioned the other. He told him that the first slave had given a very bad account of him, saying that he was a thief and a bad character, and asked if it was true. The second slave replied that the first was everything that was good, his inward qualities corresponding to the beauty of his outward appearance, and that whatever he had told the king was worthy of credit. The king replied that beauty was only an accident, and that, according to the tradition, accidents "endure only two moments;" that at death the animal soul is destroyed, that the text, "Whoso shall present himself with beauty shall receive tenfold reward," I does not refer to outward accidents, but to the "substance," the eternal soul. The slave in reply urged that the accidents of good works and thoughts will in some way bear fruit in the next world, pointing out that thought is always the precursor of the completed work, as the plan of the architect precedes the building, and the gardener's design the perfect fruit resulting from his labors. He added that the world is only the realized thought of "Universal Reason" The king then sent away the slave with whom he had held this discourse, and summoned the other, and told him that his fellow slave had given a bad account of him, and asked what he had to say. He replied that his fellow slave was a liar and a rascal, and the king then dismissed him, observing that, in accordance with the tradition, "Every man is hidden under his own tongue," his tongue had betrayed his inner vileness. "The safety of a man lies in holding his tongue."

(21) And with those eyes of His look upon His face, God says, "Whoso is God's, God also is his." God says, "I am his eye, his hand, his heart," Whatsoever is hateful to you, if it should lead you To your beloved, at once becomes agreeable to you. Why God is named "Hearing," "Seeing" and "Knowing". God calls himself "Seeing," to the end that God calls himself "Hearing," to the end that God calls himself "Knowing," to the end that These names are not mere accidental names of God,

(12) Know knowledge aspires to certainty, In the chapter, "Desire of riches occupieth you," After "Nay," read "Would that ye knew!" Knowledge conducts you to sight, O knower! "If ye are certain, ye shall see hell-fire." Sight follows on certainty with no interval, See the account of this in the chapter cited, As for me, I am above both opinion and certainty; Since my mouth has eaten of His sweetmeats, I am become clear-sighted, and see him face to face! Behold these potherbs boiling in the pot,