(12) What need has He to wheedle a worm like Moses?" O babbler, while thy soul is drunk with mere date wine, For the token of thy having seen that divine light Is this, to withdraw thyself from the house of pride. When a fowl flies to the salt water, It has never beheld the blessing of sweet water; But its faith is mere imitation of other fowl, Wherefore the blind imitator encounters great perils, Perils of the road, of robbers, of cursed Satans. But when he has seen the light of God, he is safe

(92) Sound the note of every bird that draws near; When God sent, thee to the birds, To the predestinarian bird talk predestination, To the bird with broken wings preach patience, To the patient well-doer preach comfort and pardon, To the spiritual 'Anka relate the glories of Mount Qaf, To the pigeon preach avoidance of the hawk, To the lordly hawk mercy and self-control; As for the bat, who lingers helpless in the dark, Acquaint him with the society of the light;

Next follows an anecdote of Bilkis, Queen of Sheba, whose reason was enlightened by the counsels of the Hoopoo sent to her by King Solomon. Outward sense is as opposed to true reason as Abu Jahl was to Muhammad; and when the outward senses are replaced by the true inner reason, man sees that the body is only foam, and the heart the limitless ocean. Afterwards comes an anecdote of a philosopher who was struck blind for cavilling at the verse, "What think ye? If at early morn your waters shall have sunk away, who will then give you clear running water?" This is succeeded by the story of Moses and the shepherd. Moses once heard a shepherd praying as follows: "O God, show me where thou art, that I may become. Thy servant. I will clean Thy shoes and comb Thy hair, and sew Thy clothes, and fetch Thee milk." When Moses heard him praying in this senseless manner, he rebuked him, saying, "O foolish one, though your father was a Mosalman, you have become an infidel. God is a Spirit, and needs not such gross ministrations as, in your ignorance, you suppose." The shepherd was abashed at his rebuke, and tore his clothes and fled away into the desert. Then a voice from heaven was heard, saying, "O Moses, wherefore have you driven away my servant? Your office is to reconcile my people with me, not to drive them away from me. I have given to each race different usages and forms of praising and adoring me. I have no need of their praises, being exalted above all such needs. I regard not the words that are spoken, but the heart that offers them. I do not require fine words, but a burning heart. Men's ways of showing devotion to me are various, but so long as the devotions are genuine, they are accepted."

(1) The faculty of using similitudes is peculiar to a saint What know you of the mystery hid in aught, that you In your folly should use similitudes of curl and cheek? Moses took his staff to be a stick, though it was not; It was a serpent, and its mystery was revealed. If a saint such as he knew not the mystery of a stick, What know you of the mystery of the snare and grains? When the eye of a Moses erred as to a similitude, How can a presumptuous mouse understand one? Those similitudes of yours are changed into serpents Such a parable did cursed Iblis use,

(1) Moses said, "Their sorcery confuses them; What can I do? These people have no discernment." God said, "I will generate in them discernment; Although like a sea their waves cast up foam, O Moses, thou shalt prevail over them; fear not!" The magicians gloried in their own achievements, But when Moses' rod became a snake, they were confounded. Whoso boasts of his beauty and wit, Sorcery fades away, but the miracles of Moses advance. Both resemble a dish falling from a roof: The noise of the dish of sorcery leaves only cursing;

(94) Or canst secure thyself from his talons! The Koran cries out even to the last day, "O people, given up as a prey to ignorance, If ye have imagined me to be only empty fables, Ye yourselves who abuse me will see yourselves Annihilated, and made like a tale that is told!" A gnat came in from the garden and fields, And called on Solomon for justice, Saying, "O Solomon, you extend your equity Fish and fowl dwell under the shelter of your justice;

(44) Come nigh to thy faithful shepherd, That he may cleanse thy garment of vermin, And mend thy shoes, and kiss the hem of thy robe!" No one equaled that shepherd in love and devotion, His love pitched its tent on the heavens, When the sea of love to God boiled up, It touched his heart, but it touches your ears only. Iyazi's rebuke to his passion, whish lusted to join in the "lesser warfare". I said, "O foul and faithless passion, Whence have you derived this inclination to war?

(2) Even thus, relieved from the delay of waiting, That murmuring of the eagle mounted up Along its neck, as if it had been hollow. There it became a voice, and issued thence From out its beak, in such a form of words As the heart waited for wherein I wrote them. "The part in me which sees and bears the sun In mortal eagles," it began to me, "Now fixedly must needs be looked upon; For of the fires of which I make my figure, Those whence the eye doth sparkle in my head Of all their orders the supremest are. He who is shining in the midst as pupil Was once the singer of the Holy Spirit, Who bore the ark from city unto city; Now knoweth he the merit of his song, In so far as effect of his own counsel, By the reward which is commensurate. Of five, that make a circle for my brow, He that approacheth nearest to my beak Did the poor widow for her son console; Now knoweth he how dearly it doth cost Not following Christ, by the experience Of this sweet life and of its opposite.

(61) And to house and wall, saying, "Afford no shade! Ward not off the pouring rain and the sun's heat;" Till those men hasted to listen to the prophet Shu'aib, Saying, 'O king, have pity; most of us are dead!' When that Omnipotent hand made the staff a serpent, If you have reason, that portent should suffice. You have sight indeed, but fail to mark carefully; The heavenly treasure lies "nearer to us than our neck-vein". The Faqir was in this state when a divine voice came, And God thus solved his difficulties,

(10) Thou art a duck, and flourishest on land and water, And dost not, like a domestic fowl, dig up the house. Thou art a king of "the sons of Adam honored by God," l And settest foot alike on sea and land; For impress on thy mind, "We have carried them by sea," Before the words, "We have carried them by land." The angels go not on dry land, And the animals know nothing of the sea; Thou in body art an animal, in thy soul an angel;

(81) He learned birds' language from "what we were taught." But thou art only a bird of the air; understand then That thou hast never seen the true spiritual birds! The nest of the Simurgh is beyond Mount Qaf, Not every thought can attain thereto; Save thoughts which catch a glimpse thereof, Yet not all shut off, rather intermitted for a wise end, For the blessing abides, though shut off and hidden! In order to preserve that body which is as a soul, The Sun is veiled for a while behind a cloud;

(22) When you pluck up your foot you escape from the mire, When you obtain salvation at God's hands, O wanderer, You are free from the mire, and go your way. When the suckling is weaned from its nurse, You are bound to the bosom of earth like seeds, Eat the words of wisdom, for veiled light When you have accepted the light, O beloved, When you behold what is veiled without a veil, Like a star you will walk upon the heavens; Nay, though not in heaven, you will walk on high.

(41) And become cognizant of the meaning of thy ejaculations, And say, 'Ah! my prayers are as defective as my being; O requite me good for evil!'" Moses questions God as to the reason of Moses said, "O beneficent Creator, With whom a moment's remembrance is as long ages, I see Thy plan distorted in this world of earth and water; My heart, like the angel's, feels a difficulty thereat. With what object hast thou framed this plan, And sowed therein the seeds of evil?

(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!

(23) "When the Prophet used to tell us deep sayings, That chosen one, while scattering pearls of speech, Would bid us preserve perfect quiet and silence." So, when the mighty phoenix hovers over your head, Causing your soul to tremble at the motion of its wings, You venture not to stir from your place, You hold your breath and repress your coughs, And if one say a word to you, whether good or bad, You place finger on lip, as much as to say, "Be silent." That phoenix is bewilderment, it makes you silent; The kettle is silent, though it is boiling all the while.

(21) O Moses! the lovers of fair rites are one class, Lovers must burn every moment, If they speak amiss, call them not sinners; If a martyr be stained with blood, wash it not away. Blood is better than water for martyrs, No need to turn to the Ka'ba when one is in it, One does not take a drunken man as a guide on the way, The sect of lovers is distinct from all others, Though the ruby has no stamp, what matters it? Beware, if thou offerest praises or thanksgivings,

(35) Now I shall fall into the School of the Master in his uPontificalibus, who will ask out of what the Beasts, Fowls, Fishes, and Worms were made; for he will have it, that all of them were made out of the Earth, and will prove it out of Moses, and he understands as much of Moses as of Paradise, which he will have to be altogether corporeal. Therefore there is a gross Deadness in the Understanding; and though I write plain enough, yet I shall be still dumb to that deadened Soul which is void of Understanding, and yet I cannot help it; for it is said, You must be born anew, if you will see the Kingdom of God. Would you know [out of what the Beasts are made,] then lay aside your Bonnet of Pride that is in your Mind, and walk along into the paradisical Garden of Roses, and there you shall find an Herb; if you eat of it, your Eyes will be opened, so that you shall see and know what Moses has wrote.

(2) My Master yet had uttered not a word While the first whiteness into wings unfolded; But when he clearly recognised the pilot, He cried: "Make haste, make haste to bow the knee! Behold the Angel of God! fold thou thy hands! Henceforward shalt thou see such officers! See how he scorneth human arguments, So that nor oar he wants, nor other sail Than his own wings, between so distant shores. See how he holds them pointed up to heaven, Fanning the air with the eternal pinions, That do not moult themselves like mortal hair!" Then as still nearer and more near us came The Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared, So that near by the eye could not endure him, But down I cast it; and he came to shore With a small vessel, very swift and light, So that the water swallowed naught thereof. Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot; Beatitude seemed written in his face, And more than a hundred spirits sat within. "In exitu Israel de Aegypto!" They chanted all together in one voice, With whatso in that psalm is after written.

(1) A man asked a camel, saying, "Ho! whence comest thou, Thou beast of auspicious footstep?" He replied, " From the hot bath of thy street." The man said, " That is proved false by thy dirty legs!" So, when stubborn Pharaoh saw Moses' staff a serpent, And begged for a delay (to fetch magicians) and relented, Wise men said, "He ought to have become harsher, If He really be, as He says, the Lord Supreme. What could miracles such as these of serpents, Or even dragons, matter to the majesty of His divinity? If He be really Lord Supreme, seated on His throne,

(71) Wisdom breaks away from you and takes to flight! 0n Taqlid, blind imitation or cant. "O wretch, why did you not come and say to me, 'Such and such a disastrous affair has occurred?'" The servant replied, "By Allah, I came again and again, You were always saying, 'The ass is gone, my lad!' Along with the others in high excitement; So I went away, thinking you knew all about it, And were pleased at the transaction, being a wise man."