(3) God one day said to Moses in secret: 'Go and get a word of advice from Satan.' So Moses went to visit Iblis and when he came to him asked him for a word of advice. 'Always remember,' said Iblis, 'this simple axiom: never say "I", so that you never may become like me.'

So long as there remains in you a little of self-love you will partake of infidelity. Indolence is a barrier to the spiritual way; but if you succeed in crossing this barrier a hundred 'I's' will break their heads in a moment.

Everyone sees your vanity and self-pride, your resentment, envy, and anger, but you yourself do not see them. There is a corner of your being full of dragons, and by negligence you are delivered up to them; and you pet them and cherish them night and day. So, if you are aware of your inner state, why do you remain so listless!

(6) And if you do these things, O my son, you will be victorious over all your enemies, and they will not be able to wage war against you, neither will they be able to resist, nor will they be able to get in your way. For if you find these, you will despise them as deniers of truth. They will speak to you, cajoling you and enticing (you), not because they are afraid of you, but because they are afraid of those who dwell within you, namely, the guardians of the divinity and the teaching.

(5) A sot, who had a fine long beard, accidentally fell into deep water. A passer-by seeing this, called out: 'Throw away the wallet from your head.' The drowning man replied, 'This is not a wallet, it is my beard, and it is not this which cramps me.' The passer-by said, 'Anyway, let go of it, or you will drown.'

O you who are like goats, and have no shame of your beards, so long as you have a body of desire and a demon to truss you up, the pride of Pharaoh and Haman will be your portion. Turn your back on the world as Moses did and then you will be able to seize this Pharaoh by the beard and hold him firm. He who travels on the path of self-striving must regard his heart only as shish kabab. The man with the watering-pot does not wait for the rain to fall.

(4) In the time of Moses there was a dervish who spent days and nights in a state of adoration, yet experienced no feeling for spiritual things. He had a beautiful long beard, and often while praying would stop to comb it. One day, seeing Moses, he went to him and said: 'O Pasha of Mount Sinai,

ask God, I pray you, to tell me why I experience neither spiritual satisfaction nor ecstasy.'

The next time Moses went up on Sinai he spoke to God about the dervish, and God said, in a tone of displeasure: 'Although this dervish has sought union with me, nevertheless he is constantly thinking about his long beard.' When Moses came down he told the Sufi what God had said. The Sufi thereupon began tearing out his beard, weeping bitterly. Gabriel then came along to Moses and said: ' Even now your Sufi is thinking about his beard. He thought of nothing else while praying, and is even more attached to it while he is tearing it out!'

O you who think you have ceased to be pre-occupied with your beard, you are plunged in an ocean of affliction. When you can regard it with detachment you will have a right to sail across this ocean. But if you plunge in with your beard you will have difficulty in getting out.

(2) Another device there is: prove thou if thou wilt. When thou feelest that thou mayest on nowise put them down, cower thou down under them as a caitiff and a coward overcome in battle, and think that it is but a folly to thee to strive any longer with them, and therefore thou yieldest thee to God in the hands of thine enemies. And feel then thyself as thou wert foredone for ever. Take good heed of this device I pray thee, for me think in the proof of this device thou shouldest melt all to water. And surely me think an this device be truly conceived it is nought else but a true knowing and a feeling of thyself as thou art, a wretch and a filthy, far worse than nought: the which knowing and feeling is meekness. And this meekness obtaineth to have God Himself mightily descending, to venge thee of thine enemies, for to take thee up, and cherishingly dry thine ghostly eyen; as the father doth the child that is in point to perish under the mouths of wild swine or wode biting bears.

(61) Just in this manner, and no other, thou sittest, when thou art in the pleasures of the flesh; if thou wilt not fight, thou canst not look for any victory, but thou wilt be murdered in thy soft bed of down. For man has a continual host or army before him, which fight with him continually; if he will not defend himself, then he is taken captive and slain.

(48) "'[Whoso is exalted in the battle], let him display (his) might!'"

(52) "'Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display (his) might! '

(27) Here I will faithfully admonish the Reader, deeply to consider Moses, for shere, under the Vail of Moses, he may look upon the Face of Moses: Also he may see the second Adam in the tLove of the Virgin: Also he may see him in his Temptation, and upon the Cross; as also in Death; and lastly, in the Virtue of the Resurrection at the Right Hand of God: Also you may see Moses on Mount Sinai; and lastly, the Clarification [or Transfiguration] of Christ, Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor: Also you may see herein the whole Scripture of the Old and New Testament: Also you find herein all the Prophets from the Beginning of the World to this Time, and all the Might and Power of all Tyrants, why Things have gone so, and must still go [as they do:] Lastly, you find the golden Gate of the Omnipotence, and of the great Power in the Love and Humility; and why the Children of God must still be tempted; and why the noble Grain of Mustard-Seed must grow in Storms, Crosses, and Misery, and why it cannot be otherwise: Also here you find the Essence of all Essences.