THE TREASURE HOUSE OF EASTERN 
STORY UNDER THE DIRECTORSHIP 
OF 
SIR E. DENISON ROSS 


HITOPADESA 
A Book of Wholesome Counsel 


A Translation from the original Sanskrit 
by Francis Johnson: revised and in part 
re-written with an Introduction by Lionel 
D. Barnett, M.A., Litt.D. 


STORIES FROM SA‘DI’S 
BUSTAN AND GULISTAN 


Stories from the Bustdn of Shaykh Sa‘df 
together with selections from Francis 
Gladwin’s translation of Sa‘d{’s Gulistdn, 
the former translated and the latter re- 
vised by Reuben Levy, M.A., Lecturer in 
Persian in the University of Cambridge. 


STORIES OF THE BUDDHA 


Being Selections from the Jataka. With 
an Introduction by Mrs. Rhys Davids, 
D.Litt., M.A. Lecturer in Pali and Budd- 
hism, School of Oriental Studies, Lon- 
don ; President of the Pali Text Society. 


THE HISTORY OF HAYY 
IBN YAQZAN 


By Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail. Translated 
from the Arabic by Simon Ockley. Re- 
vised, with an Introduction by A. S. 
Fulton, Assistant Keeper in the Depart- 
ment of Oriental Books and MSS. in the 
British Museum. 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


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TALES OF 
MYSTIC MEANING 


being Selections from the Mathnawi 
of Falal-ud-Din Rimi 


Translated with an Introduction by 
R. A. NICHOLSON 


Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic 
in the University of Cambridge 


With a Frontispiece by 
CYNTHIA KENT 


LONDON 
CHAPMAN AND HALL LIMITED 
MCMXXXI 





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Printed in Great Britain at 
The Westminster Press, London, W.9 
and bound by 
A. W. Bain & Co., Ltd. 


Il. 
Ill. 
IV. 


VI. 


VII. 
VIIt. 
IX. 


XI. 
XII. 
XIII. 
XIV. 
XV. 
XVI. 
XVII. 


XVIII. 
XIX. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction page xi 
The King and the Handmaiden_i 
The Grocer and the Parrot 13 


The Man who flew to Hindustan 15 
The Sufi and the Unfaithful 
Servant 17 
The Falcon amongst the Owls 23 
The Man who fancied he saw 


the New Moon 27 
The Braggart and the Sheep’s Tail 29 
The Three Fishes 32 


The Greek and Chinese Artists 36 
The Druggist and the Clay-eater 39 


The Frozen Snake 41 
The Sincere Penitent 46 
The Paladin of Qazwin 47 
The Greedy Insolvent 50 
Joseph and his Guest 56 


The Man who trusted the Bear 58 
The Thief who said he was a 


Drummer 61 
The Goldsmith who looked ahead 62 
Luqman and his Master 64 


The Lion and the Beasts of Chase 67 
The Sufi and the Empty Wallet 75 


Vil 


XXII. 


XXIII. 
XXIV. 


XXVI. 


XXVII. 


XXVIII. 
XXIX. 


XXXT. 
XXXII. 


XXXTIT. 
XXXIV. 
XXXV. 
XXXVI. 
XXXVITI. 
XXXVITT. 


XXXIX. 


CONTENTS 


The Difference between Feeling 
and Thinking page 77 
The Gnat and the Wind 78 
The Prince who was beaten at 
Chess by the Court-jester . 82 
The Infant Mohammed and the 


Idols 83 
The Siifis who sold the Traveller’s 

Ass 88 
The Four Beggars who wished 

to buy Grapes 93 
Moses and the Shepherd 95 
The Cat and the Meat 98 
How Bayazid performed the 

Pilgrimage 100 


The Arab of the Desert and his Dog 103 
The Teacher who imagined he 


was Iil 105 
The Unseen Elephant III 
Pharaoh and his Magicians 112 
The Most Beautiful City 119 
The Patience of Luqman 120 
How Jesus fled from the Fools 122 


The Man who thought he had 
prayed to God in vain 

The House built on Hypotheses 

Sultan Muhammad Khwarazm- 
shah and the People of Sab- 
zawar 


125 
127 


128 
Vill 


XLVI e 


XLVII. 
XLVIII. 


XLIX. 


L. 
LI. 


CONTENTS 


The Man who wished to learn 
the Language of Beasts and 
Birds page 

The Friend who said “‘T’’ 

The People of Saba 

Ibrahim Son of Adham 

The Man who prayed that he 
might receive his Livelihood 
without labour 

The Ghuzz raiders and the two 
Notables 

Harut and Marit 

The Grammarian and the Boat- 
man 

The Gardener and the Three 
Friends 

The Monk in search of a Man 

The Ecstasy of Bayazid 


1X 


131 
138 
139 


146 


156 
157 


160 
162 


166 
168 


INTRODUCTION 


I 


THE conquest of Persia by the Arabs produced, 
among other things, an Islamic literature in 
the Persian language, very different in character 
from the contemporary Arabic literature (though 
of course they have much in common), and 
expressing unmistakably the genius of the gifted 
race which capta ferum victorem cepit. Of this 
literature the best part, in every meaning of the 
phrase, was composed by poets; and for a 
thousand years Persian poetry has been the chief 
interpreter of Persian thought to other peoples, 
both in the East and the West. Its first triumphs 
were won in the fields of epic and romance. If 
Firdawsi may not be compared with Homer, 
the Shahndma nevertheless is a worthy monu- 
ment to the Heroic Age of Iran, from Jamshid, 
who “‘gloried and drank deep,” and Rustam, the 
unwitting slayer of his own son, through Darius 
and Alexander the Great down to the rise of the 
Sasanian Empire with Ardashir Babakan and 


X1 


INTRODUCTION 


its fall in the reign of Yazdigird. While this great 
national poem finds admirers in many nations, 
the romantic masterpieces of Nizami are dis- 
appointing when translated; the style is too 
subtle and obscure, the treatment of the subject 
too conventional, to appeal strongly to us. 
Meanwhile the art of panegyric had culminated 
in Anwari, and the quatrain or rubda‘i had estab- 
lished itself as the vehicle for epigrammatic—in 
the Greek sense—criticism of life. The collec- 
tion attributed to Omar Khayyam resembles the 
Greek Anthology in being the work of various 
more or less eminent hands, known and un- 
known, early and late. The extent of Omar’s 
share in it is uncertain. Very few of the ruba‘tyat 
can be definitely assigned to him, and a great 
number of them cannot possibly be his; but, 
taken together, they present characteristic ideas 
with such simplicity and elegance that we may 
excuse Fitzgerald for having made their reputed 
author by far the most famous and popular of all 
Persian writers in the Western literary world. 
Besides epic, romance, panegyric, and epigram, 
there was another type of poetry—the mystical 
and ethical—which had been gaining ground 
from the eleventh century onwards, and, after 


Xi 


INTRODUCTION 


the Mongol Invasion, not only eclipsed its rivals 
but attained an almost absolute supremacy in 
its own kind. Drawing inspiration from the 
religious philosophy of the Siifis, it seeks to 
shadow forth, in beautiful symbolic imagery, 
the emanation of all things from God and their 
ultimate re-union with Him, the longing of the 
mystic lover for the Beloved, his inward purifi- 
cation and transformation through suffering, 
his ecstasies and despairs—and, when the last 
veil has fallen away, his seeing “‘with the eye of 
certainty” that there is no “other” and that the 
Truth is essentially One. We need not discuss 
here the spiritual love-lyrics and wine-songs 
which were often chanted, with or without an 
accompaniment of music, in order to rouse 
emotion and induce ecstasy, and in some cases 
were composed with that object. Many Sifis 
were teachers as well as enthusiasts. In their 
didactic works the transcendental aspects of the 
doctrine may occupy an unimportant place or, 
at least, be combined with ‘‘a loftily inculcated 
ethical system, which recognises in charity, 
purity of heart, self-renunciation, and bridling 
of the passions the necessary conditions of 
eternal happiness.” Among mathnawis (poems 


xill c 


INTRODUCTION 


in rhymed couplets) of this class the Hadigatu 
"l-Hagigat, or “Garden of Truth,” by Sana’ 
of Ghazna and the Mantiqu ’t-Tayr or “‘Bird- 
Speech” by ‘Attar of Nishapiir deserve mention 
on their merits, and also because Jalalu’ddin 
Rimi, the author of “The Mathnawi” par 
excellence, regarded Sana’i and ‘Attar as his 
masters in Siifism. 


INTRODUCTION 


II 


Born at Balkh in 1207, Jalalu’ddin belonged 
to a family claiming descent from the Caliph 
Abi Bakr and allied with the royal house of 
Khwarazm (Khiva), his grandfather having 
married a daughter of Sultan Muhammad 
Khwiarazmshah. In 1206 this monarch annexed 
Balkh to his empire. At that time he was a 
zealous Sunni, and he is so described in one of 
the stories in the Mathnawi (see p. 128 infra); 
but soon afterwards he embraced the Shi'ite 
heresy, a step that must have been bitterly re- 
sented by the orthodox citizens of Balkh, in- 
cluding the poet’s father, Baha’u’ddin Walad, 
a man distinguished for piety and learning. We 
are told that Baha’u’ddin incurred the wrath 
of Khwarazmshah and left the city, accompanied 
by his family, when Jalalu’ddin was still a child. 
After long wanderings, in the course of which 
they visited Baghdad, Mecca, and Damascus, 
the exiles arrived in Riim (Asia Minor), and 
finally settled at Qoniya (Iconium) under the 
protection of the Seljiiq Sultan ‘Ala’u’ddin 
Kayqubad. Here Jalalu’ddin spent the last fifty 


XV 


INTRODUCTION 


years of his life, whence he is known as ‘‘Riimi.”’ 
He died in 1273, leaving two sons and a 
daughter. 

If one can scarcely think of Plato without 
Socrates, still less is it possible to separate 
Jalalu’ddin Rimi from Shams-i Tabriz, the 
mysterious dervish under whose name he pub- 
lished his Diwan and with whom he identified 
himself so intimately that the very existence of 
his alter ego has been doubted, in my opinion 
unwarrantably. The history of Sifism affords 
many examples of enthusiastic friendship be- 
tween teachers and disciples, and the Mathnawi 
shows that after the death of Shams-i Tabriz 
the poet stood in a similar mystic relation to 
Husamu’ddin Chelebi, who succeeded him as 
Head of the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes—the 
Order founded by Jalalu’ddin in memory, it is 
said, of Shams-1 Tabriz, with “‘their tall drab- 
coloured felt hats and wide cloaks,” their reed- 
flutes and rebecks, and their whirling dance. 
It was a wild flock that he and the inner group 
of saintly men who gathered round him at 
Qoniya were called upon to shepherd. Such a 
task demanded immense energy, experience, 
and knowledge of the world. That he composed 


XVI 


INTRODUCTION 


most of his poetry while engaged in organising 
and directing the affairs of a great Brotherhood 
would be incredible if we did not know, from 
St. Paul, for instance, what strength is given 
by the union of deep mystical faith with an 
intense and creative personality. 


XVI 


INTRODUCTION 


Ii! 


The Mathnawit, frequently described as the 
Qur’an-i Pahlawi or Qur’dn of Persia, belongs 
to the last period of his life, and was begun at 
the request of his favourite disciple, Husa- 
mu’ddin Chelebi, who acted as amanuensis. Its 
six Books were composed at intervals during 
approximately fifteen years, and in the oldest 
manuscripts amount to rather less than 26,000 
verses; in the Persian and Indian editions this 
total is greatly increased by interpolations. 
The author died before finishing the Sixth 
Book. The so-called Seventh Book was added 
in the seventeenth century by Isma‘il Anqiravi, 
who wrote a Turkish commentary on the poem. 
Books I and II have been translated by Sir 
James Redhouse: and Dr. C. E. Wilson’ re- 
spectively, and a complete version by the present 
writer is in course of publication.” The contents 

1 The Mesnevi of Mevland Felalu’d-din Muhammed er- 
Rimi. Book the First. . Translated and the poetry versi- 
fied by Fames W. Redhouse. (London, 1881.) 

* The Masnavi by falalu’d-din Rimi. Book II translated for 
the first time from the Persian into prose, with a Commentary, 


by C’. E. Wilson. (London, 1 
* The Mathnawi of Wade didn Rimi. Edited from the 


XVII 


INTRODUCTION 


of the work are excellently summarised by 
E. H. Whinfield.* With all its faults—and from 
a modern point of view they are many—the 
Mathnawi exhibits, more fully than the Diwdn-1 
Shams-i Tabriz, the marvellous range of Jala- 
lu’ddin’s poetical genius. His Odes reach the 
utmost heights of which a poetry inspired by 
vision and rapture is capable, and these alone 
would have made him the unchallenged laureate 
of Mysticism. But they move in a world remote 
from ordinary experience, open to none but 
“the unveiled,” whereas the Mathnawi is chiefly 
concerned with problems and _ speculations 
bearing on the conduct, use, and meaning of 
Life. While the Odes depict Reality as reflected 
in the clairvoyant consciousness of the Saint, 
the Mathnawi represents the Saint not only as a 
mirror of Reality, but also as a personage invested 
with Divine authority and power, an indis- 
pensable Guide on the Way to God, a Physician 
who can diagnose and cure diseases of the 


oldest manuscripts available, with critical notes, translation 
and commentary, by R. A. Nicholson. E. ¥. W. Gibb Memorial 
Fund, New Series, IV. (London and Leiden, 1925—.) 

1 Masnavi-t Ma‘navi, the Spiritual Couplets of Manlana 
Jalalu’d-din Muhammed Rimi, translated and abridged by 
E. H. Whinfield. (London, 1887; 2nd ed., 1898.) 


x1X 


INTRODUCTION 


soul, a Preacher of the Truth and a Teacher 
of the Law—the law of reverent obedience, 
through which “Heaven was filled with light 
and the Angels became pure and holy.” Pro- 
fessing to expound the esoteric doctrine of the 
Qur’an, this vast rambling discourse provides 
instruction and entertainment for all seekers. 
Few would care to read it through; but every- 
one can find in it something to suit his taste, 
from abstruse and recondite theories of mystical 
philosophy to anecdotes of a certain kind, which 
are told in the plainest terms possible. Although 
the work as a whole lacks any comprehensive 
plan, the subjects treated in each Book are 
logically connected; so many digressions, how- 
ever, intervene that the most attentive reader 
will often lose the thread of the argument. This 
is not the place to consider the author’s ideas 
in detail. He may be called a Pantheist, with the 
reservation that at times he uses language in- 
consistent with Pantheism and implying belief 
in a personal God: he seems to have held the 
one and the other view as higher and lower 
aspects of the same Truth. The full pantheistic 
doctrine is for the spiritually perfect, not for 
the self-indulgent who draw immoral inferences 


XX 


INTRODUCTION 


from it. So far as the “swine” are concerned, 
Jalalu’ddin, instead of casting his pearls before 
them, recognises evil and sin as positive facts 
and asserts that men are the willing slaves of 
passion and therefore responsible for the wicked- 
ness they commit. They suffer tribulation and 
punishment inflicted by Divine justice; yet as 
His Mercy preceded His Wrath in the begin- 
ning, so shall it prevail in the end. The moral and 
mystical teaching of the Mathnawi is centred 
in Love. If even an earthly love can purify the 
soul, how much greater must be the power of 
the Love that leaves “nothing of myself in me”! 
By developing this principle the poet shows 
that all partial evil is universal good; that the 
antithesis of freedom and necessity disappears 
in harmony of will; and that a religious faith 
resting on conventional beliefs or intellectual 
evidences has no value whatever. 

Allegory, the hard-worked handmaid of 
Mysticism, can claim Siifi literature as her 
capital province, in which all her features— 
sublime, exquisite, fantastic, and grotesque— 
are represented on the most imposing scale. 
Though much of the symbolism may be found 
elsewhere, a great deal is peculiar and unique, 


XXi1 


INTRODUCTION 


so that the writings in which it occurs seldom 
impart their real significance except to those 
who possess the key to the cipher, while the 
uninitiated will either understand them literally 
or not at all. But allegory may also be employed, 
in the form of fables, anecdotes, apologues, and 
parables, for the purpose of exposition and 
illustration; and here it serves, not as a mask or 
secret code, but as a means of teaching moral and 
mystical truths by leading the disciple through 
the familiar to the strange, through the seen to 
the unseen, through the letter to the spirit. 


XX11 


INTRODUCTION 


IV 


Following, or rather adapting to his own 
needs, a method long established in Siifi poetry, 
Jalalu’ddin sets the matter of his discourse 
within a framework of Tales, which introduce 
and exemplify the various topics and are fre- 
quently interwoven with explanations of their 
inner meaning. These explanations in their turn 
may suggest other Tales, which demand fresh 
explanations, and so it goes on till the original 
Tale is concluded, when the same process be- 
gins over again. The Mathnauwi is a grand Story- 
book. There are several hundreds of stories, 
comprising specimens in almost every genre, 
and no one can accuse the author of lacking 
invention or fail to admire the easy power with 
which he moulds his raw material into whatever 
shape he will. As might be expected, the largest 
class consists of legends from the Qur’dn and 
its Commentaries, the Traditions of the Prophet, 
and the Lives of pre-Mohammedan prophets 
and Muslim saints. Kalila and Dimna, the 
Arabic version of the Sanskrit Pancha-tantra, 
supplies numerous Beast Fables, where the 


XXIil 


INTRODUCTION 


animals play the allegorical parts assigned to 
them. Jalalu’ddin borrows much but owes 
little: he makes his own everything that comes 
to hand. The First Story in the poem is taken 
from Ibn Sina (Avicenna); others can be traced 
back to Sana’1, Nizami, and ‘Attar; and probably 
a large number were contributed by popular 
collections of anecdotes like the Fawdmui‘u I- 
Mikayat of ‘Awfi. What precisely these literary: 
sources were, and how far they cover the whole 
ground, is a question that has yet to be investi- 
gated. It is likely, I think, that some, perhaps 
many, of the Tales belong to the miscellaneous 
stock of “‘wandering’”’ stories carried to and fro 
by dervishes and other travellers, in which case 
the author may have put them into verse from 
memory. 

The Tales themselves, as distinguished from 
the doctrinal exegesis with its accompanying 
reflections, exhortations, and arguments, occupy 
a comparatively small space. Nor will the reader 
find in them what often makes the Mathnawi 
supreme poetry—lofty and sustained flights of 
imagination, or passages in which the fervour 
of the poet’s eloquence and the fullness and 
rapidity of his thought remind one of a fire 


XXIV 


INTRODUCTION 


leaping forward and kindling itself by the im- 
petus of its flames. But such qualities are not 
in keeping with narrative, and the Tales have 
their proper merits. Their direct semi-colloquial 
style, rising to dignity where the subject re- 
quires it, contrasts favourably with the artificial 
diction of most Persian verse. They abound in 
lively dialogue, masterly satiric and humorous 
descriptions of human nature, pictures of life 
and manners illustrating the outlook not only 
of medieval Siifism but of Muslims generally, 
and lessons of universal application drawn 
from a wisdom that never plays on the surface 
without contemplating the hidden depths below. 
Great poet as he is, Jalalu’ddin loves Truth 
more than Art. In his Odes the tide of enthu- 
siasm sweeps all moralities before it, in the 
Mathnawi he rubs them in with a persistence 
which renders selection and abridgment neces- 
sary. “Listen to this Story,” he says, “‘for ’tis 
the very marrow of thy inward state”—mutato 
nomine de te fabula narratur; but, unlike 
Horace, he does not know when to stop. Even 
his jocularia, some of which are far from edify- 
ing, turn themselves into ethical homilies or 
philosophical discourses. Still, the Tales are: 


XXV 


INTRODUCTION 


worth reading, husk, kernel and all. One feels 
that the Master enjoyed making them and that 
his disciples (whom he occasionally rebukes for 
being impatient to hear the rest of the story) 
must have enjoyed them too. 


xxVl 


INTRODUCTION 


V 


The following fifty-one Stories are a fair 
sample of the Mathnawi on the side from which 
the best general view of its spirit and character 
can be obtained by readers approaching it for 
the first time. All these versions except two are 
in prose, and are based upon the text and literal 
translation already published in the E. J. W. 
Gibb Memorial Series as far as the end of the 
Fourth Book; they also include a few short 
anecdotes from Book V. The force and savour 
of the Mathnawi would be lost in a paraphrase, 
and though I have modified here and there my 
complete translation, which is intended for 
students, the changes hardly affect its closeness 
to the original. I have tried to present the Tales 
attractively as well as faithfully. Their variety 
and interest become more apparent when they 
are arranged without regard to their position 
and sequence in the Six Books. Many, especially 
the longer ones, need pruning and trimming; 
and I decided to lighten them rather than leave 
them out altogether. As a rule, the temptation 
to give extracts has been resisted. No one likes 


XXVI1 


INTRODUCTION 


unfinished stories; if the Poet sometimes breaks 
off in the middle, it is because his audience 
knew the end. Brief notes have been added, 
supplementing his own remarks on the allegorical 
sense and explaining allusions to matters with 
which only Muslims are usually familiar. A 
curious and interesting commentary might be 
written on the Tales. There is no room for it 
here, and in any case it could not commend 
them to the reader half so well as has been 
done by letting them speak for themselves. 


R. ALN. 


XXVI1 


I 
THE KING AND THE HANDMAIDEN®" 


Inoldentimethere was a Kingto whom belonged 
the power temporal and also the power spiritual. 

It chanced that one day he rode with his cour- 
tiers to the chase. 

On the king’s highway the King espied 2 
Handmaiden: the soul of the King was en- 
thralled by her. 

Forasmuch as the bird, his soul, was fluttering 
in its cage, he gave money and bought the 
Handmaiden. 

After he had bought her and won to his desire, 
by Divine destiny she sickened. 

The King gathered the physicians together 
from left and right and said to them, “‘The 
life of us both is in your hands. 

My life is of no account, but she is the life of 
my life. I am in pain and wounded: she is my 
remedy. 


* Book I, v. 36 foll. The allegory is plain enough. The 
King typifies the rational spirit; the Handmaiden in love 
with the Goldsmith is the soul enamoured of worldly 
pleasure; the Physician, who by poisoning the Goldsmith 
cures the Handmaiden of her passion, is the divinely in- 
spired Saint. 


I B 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Whoever heals her that is my life will bear 
away with him my treasure and pearls, large 
and small.” 

They all answered him, saying, “We will hazard 
our lives and summon all our skill and put it 
into the common stock. 7 

Each one of us is the Messiah of a multi- 
tude:? in our hands is a medicine for every 
pain.” 

In their arrogance they did not say, “If God 
will”; therefore God showed unto them the 
weakness of Man. 

The more cures and remedies they applied, the 
more did the illness increase, and their need 
was not fulfilled. 

The sick girl became thin as a hair, while the 
eyes of the King flowed with tears of blood, 
like a river. 


How it became manifest to the King that the 
physicians were unable to cure the Handmaiden, 
and how he turned his face towards God and 
dreamed of a holy man. 


When the King saw the powerlessness of those 
physicians, he ran bare-footed to the mosque. 


1 Or, according to the oldest MS., “each one of us is a 
learned Messiah.”’ The Maszh, of course, is Jesus, who says 
in the Qur’dn, iti, 43, “I will heal the blind from birth and 
anf leper, and I will bring the dead to life by permission of 
Allah.” 


2 


THE KING AND THE HANDMAIDEN 


He entered the mosque and advanced to the 
mihrab to pray: the prayer-carpet was bathed 
in the King’s tears. 

On coming to himself out of the flood of ecstasy 
he opened his lips in goodly praise and laud, 

Saying, ““O Thou whose least gift is the empire 
of the world, what shall I say? for Thou 
knowest the hidden thing. 

O Thou with whom we always take refuge in 
our need, once again we have lost the 
way; 

But Thou hast said, ‘Albeit I know thy secret, 
nevertheless declare it in thine outward 
act.’ ”” 

When from the depths of his soul he raised a 
cry of supplication, the sea of Bounty began 
to surge. 

Slumber overtook him in the midst of weep- 
ing: he dreamed that an old man appeared 
And said, “Good tidings, O King! Thy prayers 
are granted. If to-morrow a stranger come to 

thee, he is from me. 

He is the skilled physician: deem him veracious, 
for he is trusty and true. 

In his remedy behold absolute magic, in his 
nature behold the might of God!” 


1 The niche indicating the direction of Mecca. 


3 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The meeting of the King with the divine Physician 
whose coming had been announced to him in a 
dream. 


When the promised hour arrived and day broke 
and the sun, rising from the east, began to 
burn the stars, 

The King was in the belvedere, expecting to see 
that which had been shown mysteriously. 

He saw a person excellent and worshipful, a 
sun amidst a shadow, 

Coming from afar, like the new moon in slender- 
ness and radiance: he was non-existent,’ 
though existent in the form of phantasy. 

In the stranger’s countenance the King dis- 
cerned the phantom which he had beheld in 
his dream. 

He himself, instead of the chamberlains, went 
forward to meet his guest from the In- 
visible. 

Both were seamen who had learned to swim, the 
souls of both were knit together without 
sewing. , 

The King said, “Thou wert my Beloved in 
reality, not she; but in this world one action 
arises from another. 

O thou who art to me as Mustafa,’ while I 


14.e.1n the material world. 
7 Mohammed. 


4 


THE KING AND THE HANDMAIDEN 


am like unto ‘Umar’—I will gird my loins to 
do thee service.” 

The King opened his hands and clasped him to 
his breast and received him, like love, into 
his heart and soul, 

And kissed his hand and brow and inquired 
concerning his home and journey. 

So with many a question he led him to the place 
of honour. “At last,” he said, ‘“‘I have found 
a treasure by being patient. 

O gift from God and defence against trouble, 
O thou who art the meaning of ‘Patience 
is the key to joy,’ 

O thou whose countenance is the answer to 
every question, by thee hard knots are loosed 
without discussion. 

Thou readest all that is in our hearts, thou 
givest.a helping hand to everyone whose foot 
is in the mire.”’ 


How the King led the Physician to the bedside of 
the sick girl, that he might see her condition. 


When that meeting and bounteous spiritual 
repast was over, he took his hand and con- 
ducted him to the harem. 

He rehearsed the tale of the invalid and her 
sickness and then seated him beside her. 
The Physician observed the colour of her 

1 The second Caliph. 


5 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


face and felt her pulse; he heard both the 
symptoms and the circumstances of her 
malady. 

He said, “None of the remedies which they 
have applied builds up health; those false 
physicians have wrought destruction. 

They were ignorant of the inward state. I seek 
refuge with God from that which they devise.” 

He saw the pain, and the secret became open 
to him, but he concealed it and did not tell 
the King. 

Her pain was not caused by black or yellow 
bile: the smell of every firewood appears 
from the smoke. 

From her sore grief he perceived that she was 
heart-sore ; well in body but stricken in heart. 

Being in love is made manifest by soreness of 
heart: there is no sickness like heart-sickness. 

The lover’s ailment is separate from all other ail- 
ments: Loveistheastrolabeof divine mysteries. 

Whether Love be from this side or from that,’ 
in the end it leads us Yonder. 


How the Physician demanded of the King to be 
alone with the Handmaiden for the purpose of 
discovering her malady. 


He said, “O King, make the house empty; 
send away both kinsfolk and strangers. 
13.e. earthly or heavenly. 


6 


THE KING AND THE HANDMAIDEN 


Let no one listen in the entrance-halls, that I 
may ask certain things of this handmaiden.” 

The house was left empty, not one inhabitant 
remained, nobody save the Physician and the 
sick girl. 

Very gently he asked, “Where is thy native 
town? for the treatment suitable to the people 
of each town is different. | 

And in that town who is related to thee? With 
whom hast thou kinship and affinity?” 

She disclosed to the Physician many things 
touching her home and former masters and 
fellow-townsmen, 

And he, while listening to her story, continued 
to observe her pulse and its beating, 

So that, if it throbbed at anyone’s name, he 
might know who was the object of her desire 
in the world. 

She told of many a town and many a house, and 
still no vein of her quivered nor did her cheek 
grow pale. 

Her pulse kept its wonted time, unimpaired, 
till he asked about sweet Samarcand. 

Then it jumped, and her face went red and 
pale by turns, for she had been parted from 
a man of Samarcand, a Goldsmith. 

When the Physician found out this secret from 
the sick girl, he perceived the source of that 
grief and woe. 


7 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


He asked, “In which quarter of the town does 
he dwell?” 

“‘Sar-i Pul (Bridge-head),” she replied, “and 
Ghatafar Street.”’ 

“I know,” said he, “‘what your illness is, and I 
will at once display the arts of magic in de- 
livering you. 

Be glad and care-free and have no fear, for I 
will do to you that which rain does to the 
meadow. 

I will be anxious for you, be not you anxious: 
I am kinder to you than a hundred fathers. 
Beware! tell not this secret to anyone, not 
though the King himself should make much 

inquiry. 

Let your heart become the grave of your 
secret, the sooner will your desire be gained. 

When seeds are hidden in the earth, their in- 
ward secret becomes the verdure of the 
garden.” 


How the King sent messengers to Samarcand to 
fetch the Goldsmith. 


Then he arose and went to the King and ac- 
quainted him with a part of the matter. 

“The best plan,” said he, “is that we should 
bring the man here for the purpose of curing 
this malady. 

Summon the Goldsmith from that far coun- 


8 


THE KING AND THE HANDMAIDEN 


try; beguile him with gold and robes of 
honour.”’ 

The King sent thither two messengers, clever 
men and competent and very just. 

To Samarcand came the two messengers for 
the Goldsmith debonair and wanton, 

Saying, “‘O fine master, perfect in knowledge, 
thy perfection is famous in all lands. 

Lo, such and such a King hath chosen thee 
for thy skill in the goldsmith’s craft, because 
thou art eminent. 

Look now, receive these robes of honour and 
gold and silver: when thou comest to the 
King, thou wilt be his favourite and boon 
companion.”’ 

The man saw the much wealth and the many 
robes: he was beguiled, he parted from his 
town and children. 

Blithely he set out on the road, unaware that 
the King had formed a design against his life. 

He mounted an Arab horse and sped on joy- 
ously: he deemed a robe of honour what 
really was the price of his blood. 

O fool, so willingly with thine own feet to enter 
on the journey to thy doom! 

In his fancy were dreams of riches, power, and 
lordship. Said Azrael," ‘Go thy way: yes, 
thou wilt get them!” 

* The Angel of Death. 


9 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Proudly and delicately they conducted him to 
the King, that he might burn like a moth on 
that candle of Taraz.’ 

The King beheld him, showed great regard for 
him, and entrusted to him the treasure house 
full of gold. 

Then the Physician said, ““O mighty Sultan, 
give thy handmaiden to this master, 

That she may be happy with him and that 
the water of union may quench the fire of 
passion.” 

The King bestowed on him that moon-faced 
one and wedded the twain who craved each 
other’s company. 

During the space of six months they satisfied 
their desires, till the girl was wholly restored 
to health. 

Afterwards, he prepared a potion for him, so 
that he began to dwindle away. 

When because of sickness his beauty remained 
not, the soul of the girl remained not in his 
deadly toils. 

Since he appeared ugly and ill-favoured and 
sallow-cheeked, little by little he became 
unpleasing to her heart. 

Those loves which are for the sake of a colour 
are not love: in the end they are a disgrace. 
* This expression is applied to persons of resplendent 

beauty, like the women of 'Taraz in Turkistan. 

10 


THE KING AND THE HANDMAIDEN 


Would that he too had lacked all grace, that 
such an evil doom might not have come to 
pass upon him! 

Blood ran from his eye like a river: his hand- 
some face had become an enemy to his life. 
The peacock’s plumage is its enemy. How many 

a king hath been slain by his magnificence! 

He said, “I am the muskdeer whose gland 
caused the hunter to shed its innocent blood, 

Or the fox of the field for which they lay in wait 
to cut off its head for the sake of the fur, 

Or the elephant whose blood was shed by the 
mahout for the sake of the ivory. 

He who hath slain me for that which is not 
myself," does not he know that my blood 
sleepeth not? 

To-day the doom is on me, to-morrow it is on 
him: how should the blood of one like me 
rest unavenged? 

Although the wall casts a long shadow, yet at 
last the shadow turns back again towards it. 

The world is the mountain, and our action the 
shout: the echo of the shout comes back to 
us.” 

With these words he gave up the ghost. The 
Handmaiden was purged of love and pain, 
Because love of the dead is not enduring, for the 
dead are never coming back to us; 

14,e. for my beauty. 
II 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


While love of the living is always fresher than 
a bud in the spirit and in the sight. 

Choose the love of that Living One, who is 
everlasting and gives thee to drink of the 
wine that increases life. 

Choose the love of Him from whose love all the 
prophets gained power and glory. 

Do not say, ‘“We have no admission to that 
King.” Dealings with the generous are not 
difficult. 


12 


IT 
THE GROCER AND THE PARROT" 


THERE was a Grocer who had a parrot, a sweet- 
voiced, green, talking parrot. 

Perched on the bench, it would watch over the 
shop in its master’s absence and talk to the 
customers. 

Once, as it sprang from the bench and flew 
away, it spilled some bottles of rose-oil. 

Its master came from his house and merchant- 
wise seated himself at ease on the bench. 
Finding the bench wet with oil and his clothes 
greasy, he smote the parrot on the head: it 

was made bald by the blow. 

For some few days it refrained from speech; 
the Grocer, repenting, heaved deep sighs 
And tore his beard, saying, “Alas, the sun of 

my prosperity is gone under the clouds. 

Would that my hand had been paralysed when 
I struck such a blow on the head of that 
sweet-tongued one!” 

He was giving presents to every dervish, that 
he might get back the speech of his bird. 

? Book I, v. 247. This story illustrates the folly of reason- 
ing by analogy (gzyds) and judging by appearances. 
13 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


After three days and nights he was seated on 
the bench, distraught and sorrowful like a 
man in despair, 

Showing the bird all sorts of marvels, that per- 
chance it might begin to speak, 

When a bare-headed dervish passed by, clad in 
a jawlag, his head hairless as the outside of a 
bowl. 

Thereupon the parrot began to talk, screeched 
at the dervish, and said, ‘Hey, fellow! 

How were you mixed up with the bald, O bald- 
pate? Did you, then, spill oil from a bottle?” 

The bystanders laughed at the parrot’s infer- 
ence, because it deemed the wearer of the 
frock to be like itself. 


14 


Ill 
THE MAN WHO FLEW TO HINDUSTAN’ 


ONE morn, to Solomon in his hall of justice 

A noble suitor came, running in haste, 

His countenance pale with anguish, his lips blue. 

“What ails thee, Khwaja?” asked the King. 
Then he: 

‘T'was Azrael—ah, such a look he cast 

On me of rage and vengeance.” ““Come now, ask 

What boon thou wilt.” “Protector of our lives, 

I pray thee, bid the Wind convey me straight 

To Hindustan: thy servant, there arrived, 

Shall peradventure save his soul from Death.” 


How folk do ever flee from dervishhood 

Into the jaws of greed and idle hope! 

Your fear of dervishhood is that doomed man’s 
terror, 

Greed and ambition are your Hindustan. 


Solomon bade the Wind convey him swiftly 
Over the sea to farthest Hindustan. 
On the morrow, when the King in audience 
sate, 
1 Book I, v. 956. 


15 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


He said to Azrael, ‘“Wherefore didst thou look 

Upon that Musulman so wrathfully, 

His home knew him no more?” “Nay, not in 
wrath,” 

Replied the Angel, “‘did I look on him; 

But seeing him pass by, I stared in wonder, 

For God had bidden me take his soul that day 

In Hindustan. I stood there marvelling. 

Methought, even if he had a hundred wings, 

"Twere far for him to fly to Hindustan.” 


Judge all things of the world by this same rule 

And ope your eyes and see! Away from whom 

Shall we run headlong? From ourselves? 
Absurd! 

Whom take ourselves away from? God? O 
crime! 


16 


IV 


THE SUFI AND THE UNFAITHFUL 
SERVANT" 


ONE night a wandering Sifi became a guest at a 
monastery for dervishes. 

He tied his ass in the stable; then he joined the 
brethren on the dais, 

Who were engaged in devotional meditation: 
the friend of God is a better companion than 
a book. 

The Sufi’s book does not consist of ink and 
letters: it is naught but a heart white as snow. 

When at last the meditation of those godly 
Sifis came to an end in ecstasy and en- 
thusiasm 

They furnished the guest with food, and he 
then bethought him of his ass. 

He said to the servant, ‘‘Go into the stable and 
provide straw and barley for the beast.”’ 

“God help us!” he replied, “why talk too 
much? This has been my job for ever so 
long.” 
1 Book II, v. 156. The Unfaithful Servant represents the 

Devil and the religious hypocrite. 


* La haul, “there is no power (or strength except in God 
Almighty).” 


17 Cc 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The Siifi said, “First wet the barley, for ’tis an 
old ass, and his teeth are shaky.” 

‘God help us!” said he. ““Why are you telling 
this to me, Sir? I am the one to give instruc- 
tions.” 

The Siifi said, “After having taken off his saddle 
put the manbal salve on his sore back.”’ 

“God help us!’’ exclaimed the servant. “Why, 
O purveyor of wisdom, I have had a thousand 
guests of your sort, 

And all have departed from us well pleased: 
our guests are dear to us as our kinsfolk and 
as life itself.” 

The Sufi said, “Give him water, but let it be 
lukewarm.” “God help us!” cried the other. 
‘“‘T am ashamed of you.” 

The Sufi said, “Put a little straw in his barley.”’ 
“God help us! Cut short this palaver,” he 
replied. 

The Sifi said, ‘‘Sweep his place clear of stones 
and dung, and if it is damp, sprinkle some 
dry earth on it.” 

“God help us!” cried he. ‘‘Implore God’s help, 
O father, and don’t waste words on a messen- 
ger who knows his business.”’ 

The Sufi said, ‘“Take the comb and curry his 
back.” “God help us! Do have some shame, 
O father,” said he. 

Then, briskly girding up his loins, “I go,” 

18 


THE SOFI AND THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT 


said he; “first I will fetch the straw and 
barley.” 

Off he went and never gave a thought to the 
stable: he beguiled the Sufi with the sleep 
of the hare." 

The servant went off to some rascally friends 
and made a mockery of the Siifi’s admonition. 

The Sufi was fatigued by his journey and lay 
down: with eyes closed he was dreaming 

That his ass had fallen into the clutch of a wolf 
which was tearing its back and thighs. 

““God help us!” he exclaimed. ‘““What melan- 
choly madness is this? Oh, where is that 
kindly servant?”’ 

Again, he would see his ass going along the 
road and tumbling now into a well and now 
into a ditch. 

He was dreaming unpleasant dreams, he was 
reciting the Fatiha’ and the Qdri‘a.’ 

He asked himself, “What can be done? My 
friends have hurried out and left all the doors 
locked.” 

Again he would say, “Oh, I wonder—that 
wretched servant! Did not he partake of 
bread and salt with us? 

1 7.e. he caused the Safi to imagine that he (the Servant) 
was wide-awake and attentive, though he was really like the 
hare, which sleeps with its eyes open. 


* The opening chapter of the Qur’an. 
* The hundred-and-first chapter of the Qur’dn. 


19 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


I showed him nothing but courtesy: why should 
he behave despitefully to me? 

There must be a cause for every hatred; our 
common humanity inspires feelings of friend- 
ship.” 

But then he would think, ‘‘When did Adam, 
the kind and generous, do an injury to 
Iblis?" 

What was done by man to snake and scorpion 
that they seek to inflict death and pain upon 
hime 

To rend is the instinct of the wolf: after all, 
envy is conspicuous in mankind.” 

Again he would say, “It is wrong to think evil: 
why should I bear such thoughts against my 
brother ?”’ 

But then he would reflect that prudence con- 
sists in thinking evil: how shall he that thinks 
no evil remain unhurt? 

So deep was the Sufi’s anxiety, and meanwhile 
his ass was in such a plight that—may it 
befall our enemies! 

The poor ass lay amidst earth and stones, with 
his saddle awry and his halter torn, 

Wellnigh killed by fatigue, without fodder all 
the night long, now at the last gasp and now 
perishing. 

All night the ass was repeating, ““O God, I give 
1 Satan. The word is a corruption of dsa@onos. 

20 


THE SUFI AND THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT 


up the barley, but am I not to have even a 
handful of straw ?”’ 

With mute eloquence he was saying, ‘“‘O 
Shaykhs, have pity, for I am consumed with 
anguish because of this rude, impudent 
rogue.” 

All night till dawn the miserable ass rolled on 
his side, tormented by hunger. 

At daybreak the servant came and instantly set 
the saddle straight on his back, 

And after the fashion of ass-dealers gave him 
two or three blows with a goad: he did to the 
ass what suited a cur like him. 

The sharp pricks made the ass jump up—hath 
an ass speech to describe his feelings? 

When the Sufi mounted him and got going, 
the ass began to fall on his face again and 
again, 

And the travellers lifted him up every time: 
they all thought something was wrong. 

One would twist his ears hard, while another 
sought for the laceration under his palate, 

And another searched for the stone in his 
shoe, and another looked for the dirt in his 
eye. 

‘“O Shaykh,” they asked, “what is the cause of 
this? Didn’t you say yesterday, “Thank God, 
the ass is in fine fettle’?”’ 

The Sifi replied, ‘The ass that lived all night 


21 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


on “God help us!’ cannot get along except in 
this manner. 

Since his only food was ‘God help us’ he was 
praying to God by night and is prostrating 
himself by day.” 


V 
THE FALCON AMONGST THE OWLS 


THE Falcon is he that comes back to the King. 
He that has lost the way is the blind falcon. 
It lost the way and fell into the wilderness;’ 
then in the wilderness it fell amongst owls.” 
The Falcon is wholly light emanating from the 
Light of Divine Grace, but Destiny hath 

blinded it, 

Thrown dust in its eyes and led it far from the 
right way and left it amongst the owls in the 
wilderness. 

To crown all, the owls attack it and tear its 
lovely wing-feathers and plumes. 

A clamour arose amongst the owls—‘Ha! the 
Falcon hath come to seize our dwelling- 
place.’” 

"T'was as when the street-dogs, wrathful and 
terrifying, have fallen upon the frock of a 
strange dervish. 


? Book II, v. 1131. The Falcon is a type of the righteous 
man, and particularly the prophet or saint, whose heart 1s 
turned to God. 

* The world. 

* Worldlings. 

“ The unbelievers asserted that the prophets were seeking 
power and wealth for themselves. 


23 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


“How am I fit,” says the Falcon, “‘to consort 
with owls? I give up to the owls a hundred 
wildernesses like this. 

I do not wish to stay here, I am going, I will 
return to the King of kings. 

O ye owls, do not kill yourselves with agitation ! 
I am not settling here, I am going home. 

This ruin seems a thriving abode to you, but 
my pleasure-seat is the King’s wrist.” 

“Beware,” said the great Owl to his friends, 
“the Falcon is plotting to uproot you from 
house and home. 

He will seize our houses by his cunning, he 
will then turn us out of our nests by his 
hypocrisy. 

He boasts of the King and the King’s wrist in 
order that he may lead us astray, simpletons 
as we are! 

How should a petty bird be familiar with the 
King? Do not hearken to him, if ye have any 
understanding. 

As for his saying, from deceit and feint and 
artifice, ‘The King with all his retinue is 
searching after me,’ 

Here’s an absurd mad fancy for you, here’s a 
vain brag and a snare to catch blockheads! 
If the smallest owl strike at his brain, where is 

succour for him from the King?” 

The Falcon said, “If a single feather of mine 


24 


THE FALCON AMONGST THE OWLS 


be broken, the King of kings will uproot the 
whole owlery. 

An owl forsooth! Even if a falcon vex my heart 
and maltreat me, 

The King will heap up in every hill and dale 
hundreds of thousands of stacks of falcons’ 
heads. 

His favour keeps watch over me: wherever I 
go, the King is following behind. 

My image is abiding in the King’s heart: sick 
would the King be without my image. 

When the King bids me fly in His Way, I soar 
up to the heart’s zenith, like His beams. 

I fly as a moon and sun, I rend the curtains of 
the skies. 

O blest is the owl that had the good fortune 
to apprehend my mystery! 

Cling to me, that ye may rejoice and may be- 
come royal falcons, although ye are but owls. 

I am the owner of the spiritual kingdom, I am 
not a lickspittle. The King is beating the 
falcon-drum for me from Beyond. 

My falcon-drum is the call, ‘Return! God is 
my witness in despite of adversary. 

I am not a congener of the King of kings—far 
be it from Him!—but I have light from His 
radiance. 


1 Qur’dn, Ixxxix, 27-28. “‘O soul at peace, return to thy Lord, 
well pleased and well pleased with!” 


25 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Since my genus is not the genus of my King, my 
ego has passed away for the sake of His ego. 

My ego has passed away, He remains alone: I 
roll at the feet of His horse like the dust. 

My individual self became dust, and the only 
trace of it is the print of His feet upon its 
dust. 

Become dust at His feet for the sake of that 
footprint, in order that ye may be as the 
diadem on the head of the exalted. 

Let not my puny form deceive you. Partake of 
my banquet ere I depart.” 


26 


VI 


THE MAN WHO FANCIED HE SAW THE 
NEW MOON’ 


ONCE, in ‘Umar’s time, when the Month of 
Fast came round, some people ran to the top 
of a hill, 

In order to have the luck of seeing the new 
moon; and one of them said, ‘‘Look, there 
is the new moon, O ‘Umar!”’ 

As ‘Umar did not see the moon in the sky, he said, 
“This moon has risen from thy imagination. 

Otherwise, since I am a better observer of the 
heavens than thou art, how do I not see the 
pure crescent? 

Wet thy hand and rub it on thine eyebrow, and 
then look for the new moon.” 

1 Book II, v. 112. 

*«The night on which Ramadan (the month of abstin- 
ence, the ninth month of the year) is expected to commence 
is called ‘Leylet er-Rooyeh,’ or the Night of the Observation 
[of the new moon]. In the afternoon, or earlier, during the 
preceding day, several persons are sent a few miles into the 
desert, where the air is particularly clear, in order to obtain 
a sight of the new moon: for the fast commences on the 
next day after the new moon has been seen. . . . The evi- 
dence of one Muslim, that he has seen the new moon, is 


sufficient for the proclaiming of the fast.” Lane, The Modern 
Egyptians, ch. xxv. 


27 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


When the man wetted his eyebrow, he could 
not see the moon. “‘O King,”’ said he, “there 
is No moon; it has disappeared.” 

“Yes,” said ‘Umar, “the hair of thine eyebrow 
became a bow and shot at thee an arrow of 


false opinion.” 


One crooked hair had misled him, so that he 
vainly boasted to have seen the moon. 

Inasmuch as a crooked hair veils the sky, how 
will it be if all your members are crooked? 

Straighten your members by the help of the 
righteous. O you who would go straight, turn 
not aside from the door where the righteous 


dwell. 


28 


VII 


THE BRAGGART AND THE SHEEP’S 
TAIL’ 


A PERSON, who on account of his poverty was 
lightly esteemed, used to grease his mous- 
tache every morning with the skin of a fat 
sheep’s tail, 

And go amongst the rich, saying, ‘‘I was at the 
party and had a good dinner.” 

He would gaily touch his moustache, meaning, 
‘Look at it! 

For it bears witness to the truth of my words, 
and is the token of my having eaten greasy 
and delicious food.”’ 

His belly would say in mute response, “May 
God confound the plots of the liars! 

Thy boasting hath set me on fire: may thy 
greasy moustache be torn out! 

Beggar that thou art! Were it not for thy foul 
bluster, some generous man would have 
taken pity on me. 

If thou hadst shown the ailment and hadst not 
played false, some physician would have 
devised a remedy for it.” 

* Book III, v. 732. 


29 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


His belly pleaded against his moustache and 
secretly had recourse to prayer, 

Crying, ‘‘O God, expose this idle brag of the 
base, in order that the noble may be moved 
with pity towards me.”’ 

The belly’s prayer was answered: the ardency 
of need produced a flame.” 

God hath said, ‘Though thou be a profligate 
and idolater, I will answer when Thou callest 
Me.” 

Do thou cleave unto prayer and ever cry out: 
in the end it will deliver thee from the hands 
of the ghoul. 

When the belly committed itself to God, the 
cat came and carried off the sheep’s tail. 

They pursued her, but she escaped. The brag- 
gart’s child turned pale in fear of a scolding; 

Nevertheless that little boy came into the midst 
of the company and destroyed his father’s 
prestige. 

“Father,” said he, “‘the sheep’s tail, with which 
you grease your lips and moustache every 
morning— 

The cat came and suddenly snatched it away. 
I ran hard, but it was no use.”’ 

Those who were present laughed in astonish- 
ment, and their feelings of compassion were 
roused. 

* Literally, “put forth a flag.”’ 


30 


THE BRAGGART AND THE SHEEP’S TAIL 


They invited him to eat and kept him well fed, 
they sowed the seed of pity in his soil; 

And he, having tasted honesty from the noble, 
became humbly devoted to honesty. 


31 


VITl 
THE THREE FISHES’ 


Tuts, O obstinate man, is the story of the lake 
in which there were three great fishes. 

You will have read it in Kalila,* but that is only 
the husk of the story, while this is the spiritual 
kernel. 

Some fishermen passed by the lake and saw the 
concealed prey. 

They hastened to bring the net: the fishes 
observed them and understood their inten- 
tion. 

The intelligent fish* resolved to migrate, he 
resolved to make the difficult unwelcome 
journey. 

He said, “‘I will not consult these others, for 
they will certainly weaken the strength of my 
purpose. 

Love for their native place holds sway over 
their souls: their indolence and ignorance 
will affect me too.”’ 

* Book IV, v. 2202. 
2 Kalila and Dimna, the Arabic version of the Sanskrit 

Pancha-tantra, made by Ibn al-Mugaffa‘ in the eighth cen- 


tury A.D. 
*'The Safi whose object is union with God. 


32 


THE THREE FISHES 


For consultation, a goodly and spiritually living 
person is needed, so that he may endow thee 
with spiritual life; and where is that living one 
to be found? 

O traveller, take counsel with a traveller, for a 
woman’s counsel will make thy foot lame. 
Pass beyond “‘love of country,” do not stop at 
its outward sense. O soul, thy real country is 

Yonder, not here. 

If thou desire thy country, cross to the other 
bank of the river. Do not misread the true 
Tradition of the Prophet.’ 


The wary fish swam away on his breast: he was 
going from his perilous abode towards the 
Sea of Light, 

Like the deer which is pursued by a dog and 
keeps running so long as there is a single 
nerve in its body. 

Hare’s sleep" with the dog in pursuit is a sin; 
how indeed should sleep dwell in the eyes of 
him who hath fear? 

That fish departed and took the way to the Sea: 
he chose the far way and illimitable expanse. 

The second fish’ said in the hour of tribulation, 


*“Love of country is part of the Faith.” 

* The real heedlessness and indifference of one who super- 
ficially has the appearance of being on his guard. 

* A symbol of those who, lacking the perfect wisdom of 
the prophet or saint, are wise enough to attach themselves 
to a spiritual Guide and follow him on the Way to Salvation. 


33 zs 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


when he was left without the protection of 
the intelligent one, 

“He is gone to the Sea and is freed from sorrow: 
my good comrade is lost to me. 

But I will not think of that. Now I must attend 
to myself. Let me feign to be dead 

And turn my belly upwards and my back down- 
wards and float on the water. 

I will become dead, I will commit myself to 
the water: to die before death’ is to be safe 
from torment.” 

To die before death is to be safe, O youth: even 
so hath Mustafa’ commanded us, 

Who said, “Die, all of you, ere death come; 
else ye will die in grievous afHiction.” 

The second fish died in that manner and threw 
his belly upwards: the water was carrying 
him, now alow, now aloft. 

The fishermen were exceedingly vexed and 
cried, “Alas, the best fish is dead.” 

He rejoiced at their saying ‘‘Alas’”’; he thought 
to himself, ““My trick has come off, I am 
delivered from the sword.” 

A worthy fisherman seized him and spat on him 
and flung him to the ground. 

Then the half-wise fish, rolling over and over, 
slipped quietly into the water. Meanwhile 


1 The mystical death to self (fand). 
* Mohammed. 


34 


THE THREE FISHES 


the foolish one’ was darting to and fro in 
agitation. 

That simpleton kept leaping about, right and 
left, in order that he might save his skin by 
his own efforts. 

They cast the net, and he was caught in the net: 
his foolishness ensconced him in the fire of 
perdition. | 

On the top of the fire, on the surface of a frying- 
pan, he became the bedfellow of Folly. 

There he was seething in the flames, while 
Reason asked, “Did not a Warner come to 
thee?” 

He, from the rack of torture and tribulation, 
was replying, like the souls of the unbelievers: 
they said, “‘ Yea.” 


1 The carnal man who has no light of his own and will not 
submit to be led by that of another. 

2 As the infidels shall be asked by the keepers of Hell on 
the Day of Judgment (Qur’dn, Ixvii, 8). 


35 


IX 
THE GREEK AND CHINESE ARTISTS’ 


THE Chinese said, ‘We have the greater skill’’; 
the Greeks said, “The superior excellence 
belongs to us.” 

“IT will put you both to the test,”’ said the Sul- 
tan, ‘‘and see which party makes good its 
claim.” 

There were two rooms with door facing 
door: the Chinese took one, the Greeks the 
other. 

The Chinese asked the Sultan for a hundred 
colours: he opened his treasury that they 
might receive them, 

And every morning, by his bounty, the colours 
were dispensed to the Chinese. 

The Greeks said, “For our work no colours 
are necessary: we need only remove the 
rust.” 

They shut the door and began to burnish: 
the walls became bright and pure like the 
sky. 

There is a way from many-colouredness to 


* Book I, v. 3467. 
36 


THE GREEK AND CHINESE ARTISTS 


colourlessness: colour is the cloud, colour- 
lessness the moon.’ 

Whatsoever light and splendour you see in the 
clouds, know that it comes from the stars and 
the moon and the sun. 

When the Chinese finished their work, they 
beat drums in jubilation. 

The Sultan entered and looked at the pictures: 
their beauty almost robbed him of under- 
standing. 

Afterwards he visited the Greeks. They had 
lifted the curtain between themselves and 
the Chinese, 

So that the Chinese paintings were reflected 
upon those shining walls. 

All that he had seen there seemed more beauti- 
ful here: ’twas drawing the eye from the 
socket. 


The Greeks, O father, are the Siifis. They are 
without learning and books and erudition, 
But they have burnished their hearts and 
made them pure of greed and avarice and 
hatred. 

That pure mirror* is, beyond doubt, the heart 
which receives images innumerable. 


* Cf. Shelley’s— 
“Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, 
Stains the white radiance of eternity.” 
*z.e. the walls which the Greeks had polished. 


37 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The spiritual Moses’ holds in his bosom the 
infinite form of the Unseen reflected from 
the mirror of his heart.’ 


1 The illumined saint. There is an allusion to the com- 
mand given to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Qur’dn, xxvii, 12; 
XXVili, 32), ‘Thrust thy hand into thy bosom: it will come 


forth white without hurt.” 
* The Perfect Man is a microcosm in which all the divine 


attributes are reflected as in a mirror. 


38 


X 


THE DRUGGIST AND THE 
CLAY-EATER’ 


A CLAY-EATER went to a druggist to buy a quan- 
tity of fine hard sugar-loaf. 

The druggist, who was a crafty, vigilant man, 
informed his customer that the balance- 
weight was clay.’ 

“T want the sugar at once,”’ replied the clay- 
eater; ‘“‘let the weight be what you will.” 
He said to himself, ““What does it matter to me? 

Clay is better than gold.” 

The druggist therefore put the clay, which he 
had ready, in one scale of the balance, 

And began to break with his hand the equivalent 
amount of sugar for the other scale. 

Since he had no pick-axe, he took a long time 
and kept the customer waiting. 

Whilst he was busy with the sugar, the clay- 


> 


* Book IV, v. 625. The practice of geophagy is often men- 
tioned in the Mathnawi. According to Schlimmer (Termin- 
ologie médico-pharmaceutique, Teheran, 1874, p. 299) it is 
common amongst Persian women. The province of Khurasan 
gave its name to a brilliant white clay, which was eaten 
roasted; and there were other well-known varieties. 

* Implying that it was deficient. 


39 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


eater, unable to restrain his appetite, helped 
himself covertly to the clay, 

In a terrible fright lest the druggist’s eye should 
fall upon him of a sudden for the purpose of 
testing his honesty. 

The druggist saw him but feigned to be busy, 
saying to himself, ““Come, take some more, 
O pale-face. 

If you will be a thief and filch my clay, go on, 
for you are eating out of your own side. 

You are afraid of me, because you are a stupid 
ass; I am only afraid that you will eat too 
little. 

Busy as I am, I am not such a fool as to let you 
get too much of my sugar. 

When you see the amount of sugar you have 
bought, then you will know who was foolish 
and careless.”’ 


40 


XI 
THE FROZEN SNAKE’ 


A SNAKE-CATCHER went to the mountains to 
catch a snake by his incantations. 

Whether one be slow or quick, he that is a 
seeker will be a finder. 

Always apply yourself with both hands to seek- 
ing, for search is an excellent guide on the way. 

Though you be lame and limping and bent in 
figure and unmannerly, ever creep towards 
God and be in quest of Him. 

Now by speech, now by silence, and now by 
smelling, catch in every quarter the scent of 
the King. 

Smel] all the way from the part to the Whole, 
O noble one; smell all the way from opposite 
to opposite, O wise one. 

Assuredly wars bring peace; the snake-catcher 
sought the snake for the purpose of friend- 
ship. 

Man seeks a snake for his friend and cares for 
one that is without care for him." 


* Book III, wv. 976. 
* The snake, as the poet explains afterwards, is the sen- 
sual “‘self,”” which is Man’s worst enemy. 


AI 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The snake-catcher was searching in the moun- 
tains for a big snake in the days of snow. 
He espied there a huge dead serpent, at the 

aspect whereof his heart was filled with fear. 

The snake-catcher catches snakes in order to 
astonish the people—oh, the foolishness of 
the people! 

Man is a mountain:’ how should he be led into 
temptation? How should a mountain be 
astonished by a snake? 

Wretched Man does not know himself: he has 
come from a high estate and fallen into lowli- 
hood. 

Man has sold himself cheaply: he was satin, he 
has patched himself on to a tattered cloak. 
Hundreds of thousands of snakes and moun- 
tains are amazed at him: how, then, has he 

become amazed and in love with a snake? 

The snake-catcher took up the serpent and 
came to Baghdad in order to excite astonish- 
ment. 

For the sake of a paltry fee he carried along 
with him a serpent like the pillar of a house, 

Saying, “I have brought a dead serpent: I have 
suffered agonies in hunting it.” 

He thought it was dead, but it was alive, and 
he had not inspected it very well. 


? ‘Man, created in the image of God, resembles a mountain 
in the grandeur and might of his essential nature. 


42 


THE FROZEN SNAKE 


It was frozen by frosts and snow; it was living, 
though it presented the appearance of the 
dead. 

The World is frozen: its name is jamdd (in- 
animate) ; ja@mid means “‘frozen,’’ O master. 
Wait till the Sun of the Resurrection shall rise, 
that thou mayst see the movement of the 

World’s body! 

At last the would-be showman arrived at 
Baghdad, to set up a public show at the cross- 
roads. 

The man set up a show on the bank of the 
Tigris, and a great hubbub arose in the city— 

“A snake-catcher has brought a serpent; he 
has captured a marvellous rare beast.”’ 

Myriads of simpletons assembled, who had 
become a prey to him as he to his folly. 

They were waiting to see the serpent, and he 
too waited for them to assemble. 

The greater the crowd, the better goes the 
begging and contributing of money. 

Myriads of idle babblers gathered round, form- 
ing a ring, sole against sole.’ 

Men took no heed of women: all were mingled 
in the throng, like nobles and common folk 
at the Resurrection. 

When he began to lift the cloth covering the 
serpent, the people strained their necks, 

1 g.e, standing closely packed together on tiptoe. 


43 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


And saw that the serpent, which had been 
frozen by intense cold, lay underneath a 
hundred coarse woollen blankets and cover- 
lets. 

He had bound it with thick ropes: the careful 
keeper had taken great precautions. 

During the interval of expectation and coming 
together, the sun of ‘Iraq shone upon the 
snake. 

The sun of the hot country warmed it: the cold 
humours went out of its limbs. 

It was dead, and it revived: the astonished ser- 
pent began to uncoil itself. 

By the stirring of the dead serpent the people’s 
amazement was increased a hundred thou- 
sandfold. 

They fled, shrieking, while the cords binding the 
serpent went crack, crack, one after another. 

It burst the bonds and glided out from beneath 
—a hideous dragon roaring like a lion. 

Multitudes were killed in the rout: a hundred 
heaps were made of the fallen slain. 

The snake-catcher stood paralysed with fear, 
crying, ““What have I brought from the moun- 
tains and the desert?” 

The blind sheep awakened the wolf and un- 
wittingly went to meet its Azrael. 

The serpent made one mouthful of that dolt: 
blood-drinking is easy for a Hajjaj. 


44 


THE FROZEN SNAKE 


It wound itself on a pillar and crunched the 
bones of the devoured man. 


The serpent is thy carnal soul: how is it dead? 
It is only frozen by grief and lack of means. 

If it obtain the means of Pharaoh, by whose 
command the Nile would flow, 

Then it will begin to act like Pharaoh and way- 
lay a hundred such as Moses and Aaron. 

That serpent, under stress of poverty, is a little 
worm; but a gnat is made a falcon by power 
and riches. 

Keep the serpent in the snow of separation from 
its desires. Beware, do not carry it into the 
sun of ‘Iraq! 


45 


XII 
THE SINCERE PENITENT" 


A MAN was going to attend the Friday prayers: 
he saw the people leaving the mosque 

And asked one of them why they were depart- 
ing so early. 

He replied, ““The Prophet has prayed with the 
congregation and finished his worship. 

How art thou going in, O foolish person, after 
the Prophet has given the blessing ?”’ 

“‘Alas!”’ he cried; and it seemed as though the 
smell of his heart’s blood issued, like smoke, 
from that burning sigh. 

One of the congregation said, “Give me this 
sigh, and all my prayers are thine.” 

He answered, ‘‘I give thee the sigh and accept 
thy prayers.” The other took the sigh that 
was so full of regret and longing. 

At night, whilst he was asleep, a Voice said to 
him, “Thou hast bought the Water of Life 
and Salvation. 

For the sake of that which thou hast chosen, 
the prayers of all the people have been ac- 
cepted.” 

? Book II, v. 2771. 


46 


XITI 
THE PALADIN OF QAZWIN’ 


Now hear a pleasant tale—and mark the scene— 
About the way and custom of Qazwin, 

Where barbers ply their needles to tattoo 
Folk’s arms and shoulders with designs in blue. 


Once a Qazwini spoke the barber fair: 

‘Tattoo me, please; make something choice 
and rare.” 

‘“‘What figure shall I paint, O paladin?” 

“A furious lion: punch him boldly in. 

Leo 1s my ascendant: come, tattoo 

A lion, and let him have his fill of blue.”’ 

“On what place must I prick the deft design ?”’ 

“Trace it upon my shoulder, line by line.”’ 

He took the needle and dabbed and dabbed it 
in. 

Feeling his shoulder smart, the paladin 

Began to yell—‘‘You have killed me quite, I 
vow: 

What is this pattern you are doing now?” 

‘Why, sir, a lion, as you ordered me.”’ 

‘Commencing with what limb?”’ demanded he. 
* Book I, v. 2981. 


47 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


“His tail,’’ was the reply. ‘“‘O best of men, 

Leave out the tail, I beg, and start again. 

The lion’s tail and rump chokes me to death; 

It’s stuck fast in my windpipe, stops my 
breath. 

O lion-maker, let him have no tail, 

Or under these sharp stabs my heart will 
fail.” 

Another spot the barber ’gan tattoo, 

Without fear, without favour, without rue. 

“Oh, oh! which part of him is this? Oh 
dear!” 

“This,” said the barber, “is your lion’s ear.” 

“Pray, doctor, not an ear of any sort! 

Leave out his ears and cut the business short.” 

The artist quickly set to work once more: 

Again our hero raised a doleful roar. 

“On which third limb now is the needle em- 
ployed?” 

“His belly, my dear sir.” “Hold, hold!” he 
cried. 

‘Perish the lion’s belly, root and branch! 

How should the glutted lion want a paunch?”’ 

Long stood the barber there in mute dismay, 

His finger ’twixt his teeth; then flung away 

The needle, crying, “All the wide world o’er 

Has such a thing e’er happened heretofore? 

Why, God Himself did never make, I tell ye, 

A lion without tail or ears or belly!” 


48 


THE PALADIN OF QAZWIN 


Mora. 


Brother, endure the pain with patience fresh, 

To gain deliverance from the miscreant flesh. 

Whoso is freed from selfhood’s vain conceit, 

Sky, sun and moon fall down to worship at his 
feet. 


XIV 
THE GREEDY INSOLVENT" 


THERE was an Insolvent without house or 
home, who remained in prison and pitiless 
bondage. 

He would unconscionably eat the rations of the 
prisoners; on account of his appetite he lay 
heavy as Mt. Qaf* on the hearts of the people 
in the gaol. 

No one durst eat a mouthful of bread, because 
that food-snatcher would carry off his entire 
meal. 

The prisoners came to complain to the 
Cadi’s agent, who was possessed of discern- 
ment, 

Saying, ‘Take our salutations to the Cadi and 
relate to him the sufferings inflicted on us 
by this vile man; 

For he is never out of prison, and he is a vaga- 
bond, a lickspittle, and a nuisance. 

Like a fly, he impudently presents himself at 
every meal without invitation or salaam. 


* Book II, wv. 585. 
* The inaccessible range of mountains by which, according 
to Muslim belief, the earth is surrounded. 


50 


THE GREEDY INSOLVENT 


To him the food of sixty persons is nothing; he 
pretends to be deaf if you say ‘Enough!’ 

Not a morsel reaches the ordinary prisoner, 
or if by a hundred shifts he discover some 
food, 

That hell-throat at once comes forward with the 
argument that God has said, ‘Eat ye.” 

Justice, justice against such a three years’ 
famine! May the shadow of our lord endure 
for ever! 

Either let this buffalo out of prison, or make 
him a regular allowance of food from a trust- 
fund. 

O thou by whom men and women are made 
happy, do justice! Thy help is invoked and 
besought.” 

The courteous agent went to the Cadi and 
related the complaint to him point by 
point. 

The Cadi summoned the Insolvent to his pres- 
ence, and inquired about him from his own 
officers. 

All the complaints which the prisoners had set 
forth were proved to the Cadi. 

‘The Cadi said to him, ‘‘Get up and depart from 
this prison: go to the house that belongs to 
you by inheritance.” 


1 Our’dn, vii, 29. 


51 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


He replied, “My house and home consist in 
thy bounty; as in the case of an infidel, thy 
prison is my Paradise.’ 

If thou drive me from the prison and turn me 
out, I shall certainly die of beggary and desti- 
tution.” 


He pleaded like the Devil, who said, “O 
Lord, grant me a respite till the Day of Resur- 
rection,” 

For ’tis my pleasure to be in the prison of this 
World, so that I may slay the children of mine 
Enemy, 

And, if anyone have some food of Faith and a 
single loaf as provision for the journey to the 
Life hereafter, 

I may seize it by guile and cunning, and 
they in sorrow may raise an outcry of 
lamentation, 

While sometimes I threaten them with poverty, 
and sometimes bind their eyes with the spell 
of tress and mole.” 


The Cadi said, ‘Prove that you are insolvent.” 
““Here are the prisoners,” he replied, “‘as my 
witnesses.” 


1 The Prophet is reported to have said, “This world is the 
infidel’s Paradise.” 
® Qur’an, vii, 13, slightly altered. 


52 


THE GREEDY INSOLVENT 


“They,” said the Cadi, ‘‘are suspect, because 
they are fleeing from you and weeping blood 
on account of you; 

They are suing for deliverance from you: by 
reason of self-interest their testimony is 
worthless.” 

All the people of the court said, ‘‘ We bear 
witness both to his insolvency and his moral 
degeneracy.” 

Everyone whom the Cadi questioned about his 
condition said, “My lord, wash thy hands of 
this Insolvent.” 

Then said the Cadi, “March him round the city 
for all to see, and cry, ‘This man is an in- 
solvent and a great rogue. 

Let no one sell to him on credit, let no one lend 
him a farthing. 

Whatever charge of fraud may be brought 
against him, I will not commit him to prison in 
future.’ 

His insolvency has been proven to me: he 
possesses nothing, neither money nor goods.’”’ 


When the show’ started, they brought along the 
camel of a Kurd who sold firewood. 
He made a great row, but all in vain, though he 


* According to Muslim law, a debtor whose insolvency 
has been proven is not liable to imprisonment. 
*4.e. the preparations for parading the Insolvent. 


53 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


conciliated the police officer with the gift of 
a dang.’ 

Upon the camel was seated that sore famine,’ 
while the owner ran at its heels. 

They sped from quarter to quarter and from 
street to street, till the whole town knew him 
by sight. 

Ten loud-voiced criers, Turks and Kurds and 
Greeks and Arabs, made the following pro- 
clamation: 

“This man is insolvent and has nothing: let no 
one lend him a brass farthing; 

He does not possess a single mite, patent or 
latent; he is a bankrupt, a piece of falsehood, 
a cunning knave, an oil-bag. 

Beware! Beware! Have no dealings with him: 
when he brings the ox to sell, tie up your 
money ; 

And if ye bring this decayed wretch for judge- 
ment, I will not imprison a corpse.” 


At nightfall, when the Insolvent dismounted, 
the Kurd said to him, “I live a long way off. 

You have been riding on my camel since morn- 
ing. Never mind the barley,’ but at least give 
me what will pay for the straw.” 


1 About a farthing. 
* The Insolvent. 
* ze. “I don’t ask you to pay me in full.” 


54 


THE GREEDY INSOLVENT 


‘““Why,” he rejoined, ‘‘what were we doing all 
day? Where are your wits? Is none of them 
at home? 

My insolvency has been drummed up to the 
Seventh Heaven, but you have not heard the 
bad news! 

Your ears were filled with foolish hope. Such 
hope makes one deaf and blind, my lad.” 


XV 
JOSEPH AND HIS GUEST" 


THE loving friend came from the ends of the 
earth and became the guest of Joseph the 
truthful; 

For they had been friends in childhood, re- 
clining together on the cushion of acquaint- 
ance. 

He spoke of the injustice and envy of Joseph’s 
brethren. Joseph said, “That was a chain, 
and I was the lion. 

The lion is not disgraced by the chain: I do not 
complain of God’s decree.” 

After Joseph had told him his story, he said, 
‘“Now, O such and such, what traveller’s gift 
hast thou brought for me? 

Come, produce it.” At this demand the guest 
sobbed aloud in confusion. 

“How many a gift,”’ he said, “did I seek for 
thee! but no worthy gift came into my 
sight. 

How should I bring a grain of gold to the mine? 
How should I bring a drop of water to the 
sea? 

* Book I, v. 3157. 
56 


JOSEPH AND HIS GUEST 


I should only bring cumin to Kirman’ if I 
brought my heart and soul as a gift to thee. 
There is no grain that is not in this barn except 
thy incomparable beauty. 

I deemed it fitting that I should bring to thee a 
mirror like the inward light of a pure heart, 

That thou mayst behold thy beauteous face 
therein, O thou who, like the sun, art the 
lamp of heaven. 

I have brought thee a mirror, O light of mine 
eyes, so that when thou seest thy face thou 
mayst think of me.” 


1To “bring cumin to Kirman” (in Southern Persia) 
means the same thing as “‘carrying coals to Newcastle.” 


57 


XVI 
THE MAN WHO TRUSTED THE BEAR’ 


A DrRaGon was pulling a Bear into its jaws: a 
valiant man went and succoured it. 

When it was delivered from the Dragon, it 
followed its benefactor like the dog of the 
Seven Sleepers.’ 

He, being fatigued, lay down to rest: the Bear, 
from devotion to him, became his guard. 
A holy man passed by and said to him, ‘What 
is the matter? What has this Bear to do with 

thee, O brother?” 

He related his adventure with the Dragon. 
“Fool!’’ said the other, ‘‘do not set thy heart 
on a bear.”’ 

The man thought to himself, “He is envious”; 
then hesaid aloud, “‘See how fond of me itis!”’ 

‘The fondness of fools is deceiving,” he replied ; 
“‘my envy is better for thee than its affection. 


* Book II, v. 1932. 

* The Qur’dn, ch. xviii, relates the legend of the seven 
Christian youths of Ephesus who, in the reign of the Em- 
peror Decius, fled from persecution and took refuge in a 
cave, where they slept for three hundred and nine years. 
The dog which accompanied them (vv. 17 and 21) is said by 
some to have had the name ar-Ragim (v. 8); but this identi- 
fication is very doubtful. 

58 


THE MAN WHO TRUSTED THE BEAR 


Drive the Bear away and come with me, do not 
make friends with the Bear, do not forsake 
one of thy own kind. 

I am not less than a bear, O noble sir: abandon 
it in order that I may be thy comrade. 

My heart is trembling for thee: do not go into 
a forest with a bear like this. 

My heart has never trembled in vain; this is 
the Light of God, not pretence or idle 
boasting. 

I am the true believer who sees by the Light of 
God.’ Beware, beware! Flee from this fire- 
temple!” 

He said all this, but it entered not into his ear. 
Suspicion is a mighty barrier to a man. 

“Go,” cried he, ‘“‘be not troubled for me, don’t 
retail so much wisdom, O busybody.”’ 

He answered, saying, ‘“‘I am not thy enemy: it 
would be a kindness if thou wouldst come 
with me.” 

“I am sleepy,” said he; “let me alone; go!”’ 


That Muslim left the foolish man and returned 
to his abode, muttering, “God help us!” 
The man fell asleep, and the Bear kept driving 
the flies away from his face, but they soon 

came hurrying back again. 


1 As is declared in a Tradition of the Prophet. 
* 3.e. the ignis fatuus of carnality and vain desire. 


59 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The Bear went off in a rage and picked up a 
very big stone from the mountain-side. 

He fetched the stone, and seeing the flies again 
settled on the face of his friend, 

He took it up and struck at them to make them 
go away. 

The stone made powder of the sleeping man’s 
face and published to the whole world this 
adage— 

“Surely the love of a Fool is the love of a Bear: 
his hate is love and his love is hate.” 


60 


XVII 


THE THIEF WHO SAID HE WAS A 
DRUMMER’ 


Hear this parable—how a wicked Thief was 
cutting a hole at the bottom of a wall. 

Someone who was ill and half awake heard the 
tapping of his pick. 

And went on the roof and hung his head down 
and said to him, “What are you about, O 
father? 

All is well, I hope. What are you doing here at 
midnight ? 

Who are you?” He said, “A drummer, O hon- 
ourable sir.”’ 

‘‘What are you about?” “I am beating the 
drum.” 

The sick man said, ‘‘Where is the noise of the 
drum, O artful one?” 

He replied, “You will hear it to-morrow, namely, 
cries of ‘Oh, alas!’ and ‘Oh, woe is me’! ” 


* Book ITI, v. 2799. 
61 


XVIII 


THE GOLDSMITH WHO LOOKED 
AHEAD’ 


A CERTAIN man came to a Goldsmith, saying, 
‘“‘Give me the scales that I may weigh some 
gold.” 

He replied, ““Go, I have no sieve.” ““Give me 
the scales,” said the other, ‘‘and don’t waste 
time in jesting.”’ 

“There is no broom in the shop,” said the 
Goldsmith. “Enough! Enough!” he ex- 
claimed; “‘leave these jokes. 

Give me the scales I am asking for. Don’t pre- 
tend to be deaf; don’t talk at random.”’ 

He replied, “I heard what you said, I am not 
deaf; you must not think I am nonsensical. 

I heard your request, but you are a shaky old 
man: your hand trembles and your body is 
bowed; 

And moreover your gold consists of tiny filings, 
which will drop from your trembling hand. 

Then you will say, ‘Sir, fetch a broom, that I 
may search in the dust for my gold’; 


* Book III, v. 1624. 
62 


THE GOLDSMITH WHO LOOKED AHEAD 


And when you have gathered the sweepings, 
you will tell me that you want the sieve. 

I from the beginning discerned the end com- 
plete. Go from here to some other place, and 
farewell!” 


63 


XIX 


LUQMAN AND HIS MASTER’ 


LUQMAN was the favourite of his master, who 
preferred him to his own sons, 

Because Luqman, though a slave, was master 
of himself and free from sensual desire. 

A certain King said to a holy man, “Ask a boon 
that I may bestow it upon thee.” 

He answered, ““O King, are not you ashamed 
to say such a thing to me? Mount higher! 

I have two slaves, and they are vile, and 
yet those twain are rulers and lords over 
you.” 

Said the King, “Who are those twain? Surely 
this is an error.’ He replied, “The one is 
anger and the other is lust.” 


Luqméan was always the first to partake of any 
viands that were served to his master, 

For the master would send them to him, and if 
Luqman left them untasted his master would 
throw them away; 

Or, if he did eat of them, it would be without 


? Book II, v. 1462. 
64 


LUQMAN AND HIS MASTER 


heart and without appetite: this is the sign 
of an affinity without end. 

One day he received the gift of a melon. “Go,” 
said he, “‘call hither my dear Luqman.” 

He gave him a slice: Luqman ate it as though 
it were sugar and honey, 

And showed such pleasure that his master went 
on giving him slice after slice, seventeen in all. 

One slice remained. He said, “I will eat this 
myself, to see what a sweet melon it is.” 

No sooner had he tasted it than its sourness 
blistered his tongue and burnt his throat. 

For a while he was almost beside himself; 
then he cried, ““O Luqm§an, my soul and my 
world, 

How could you have the patience? What made 
you endure so long? Or perhaps life is hateful 
to you.” 

Luqman said, “From thy bounteous hand I 
have eaten so many sweets that I am bent 
double with shame. 

I was ashamed to refuse one bitter thing from 
thy hand, O wise master. 

Since all parts of me have grown from thy 
bounty and are a prey to thy bait and snare— 

If I complain of one bitter thing, may the dust 
of a hundred roads cover every part of me! 

This melon had reposed in thy sugar-bestow- 
ing hand: how could it retain any bitterness ?”’ 


65 F 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Through Love bitter things become sweet; 
through Love pieces of copper become golden. 

Through Love dregs become clear; through 
Love pains become healing. 

Through Love the dead is made living; through 
Love the king is made a slave. 


66 


XX 


THE LION AND THE BEASTS OF 
CHASE’ 


THE Beasts of Chase in a pleasant valley were 
harassed by a Lion, 

So they made a plan: they came to the Lion, 
saying, ‘‘We will keep thee full-fed by a fixed 
allowance. 

Do not exceed thy allowance, else this pasture 
will become bitter to us.” 

““Yes,”’ said he, “if I find good faith on your 
part, for I have suffered many a fraud at the 
hands of Zayd and Bakr." 

I am done to death by the cunning of man, I 
am stung by human snake and scorpion. 
“The believer is not bitten twice’: I have taken 
this saying of the Prophet to my heart.” 
The Beasts said, ““O sagacious one, let precaution 

alone: it is of no avail against the divine Decree. 

Precaution is but trouble and woe: put thy 
trust in God, trust in God is better. 

O fierce Lion, do not grapple with Destiny lest 
Destiny pick a quarrel with thee.” 


1 Book I, v. goo 
: Equivalent to * “Tom, Dick, and Harry.” 


67 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


“Yes,” he said; “but though trust in God is 
the true guide, yet we should use precaution 
according to the Prophet’s rule. 

The Prophet spoke plainly, saying, “Trust in 
God, and bind the knee of thy camel.’ 

He hath also said, ‘God loves the worker.’ Let 
us trust in God, but not so as to neglect ways 
and means.” 

The Beasts answered him, saying, “There is 
no work better than trust in God: what in- 
deed is dearer to Him than resignation? 

Man contrives, and his contrivance is a snare 
to catch him: that which he thought would 
save his life sheds his blood. 

He locks the door whilst his foe is in the house: 
the plot of Pharaoh was a tale of this kind. 
We are the family of the Lord; like infants, we 

crave after milk. 

God who gives rain from heaven is also able, in 
His mercy, to give us bread.” 

“Yes,” said the Lion; “but the Lord hath set a 
ladder before our feet. 

Step by step we must climb to the roof: to be a 
Necessitarian here is to indulge in foolish 
hopes. 

You have feet: why do you pretend to be lame? 
You have hands: why do you hide your 
fingers? 

When the master puts a spade in his slave’s 


68 


THE LION AND THE BEASTS OF CHASE 


hand, he need not speak in order to make his 
object known.”’ 

The Lion gave many proofs in this style, so that 
those Necessitarians became tired of answer- 
ing him. 

Fox and deer and hare and jackal abandoned 
their doctrine and ceased from disputation. 

They made a covenant with the Lion, ensuring 
that he should incur no loss in the bargain, 

And that he should receive his daily rations 
without trouble or any further demand. 

Every day the one on whom the lot fell would 
run to the Lion as swiftly as a cheetah. 

When the fatal cup came round to the Hare, 
‘‘Why,”’ cried the Hare, “‘how long shall we 
endure injustice ?”’ 

His companions said, “All this time we have 
sacrificed our lives in truth and loyalty. 

Do not thou give us a bad name, O rebellious 
one! Quick! Quick! lest the Lion be ag- 
grieved.” 

“‘O my friends,” said he, “grant mea respite, that 
by my cunning ye may escape from this woe 

And save your lives and leave security as a 
heritage to your children.” 

The Beasts replied, ‘“O donkey, listen to us. 
Keep thyself within the measure of a hare! 
Eh, what brag is this? Thy betters never thought 

of such a thing.” 


69 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


‘““My friends,” said he, ‘‘God hath inspired me. 
Weak as I am, I am wisely counselled. 

God opens the door of knowledge to the bee, 
so that it builds a house of honey. 

God teaches the silkworm a craft beyond the 
power of the elephant. 

When Adam, the earth-born, gained know- 
ledge of God, his knowledge illumined the 
Seventh Heaven.” 

They said, “O nimble Hare, disclose what is 
in thy mind. The Prophet hath said, “Take 
counsel with the trustworthy.’ ” 

“Not every secret may be told,” said he; “‘some- 
times an even number turns out odd and an 
odd one even. 

If you breathe the hidden word on a mirror, 
the mirror immediately becomes dim. 

Hold your tongue concerning three things: 
your departure, your money, and your re- 
ligion.”’ 


The Hare tarried long, rehearsing to himself 
the trick he was about to play. 

At last he took the road and set forth to whisper 
a few secrets in the Lion’s ear. 

The Lion, incensed and wrathful and frantic, 
saw the Hare coming from afar, 

Running undismayed and confidently, looking 
angry and fierce and fell and sour; 


70 


THE LION AND THE BEASTS OF CHASE 


For by appearing humble he thought suspicion 
would be excited, while boldness would re- 
move every cause of doubt. 

As soon as he approached, the Lion roared, 
‘Ha, villain! 

I who tear oxen limb from limb, I who bruise 
the ears of the raging elephant— 

What! shall a half-witted hare presume to spurn 
my commands?” 

“Mercy!” cried the Hare. “I have an excuse, 
please thy Majesty.” 

‘““What excuse?”’ said he. “‘O the shortsighted- 
ness of fools! Is this the time for them to 
come into the presence of kings? 

The fool’s excuse is worse than his crime, ’tis 
the poison that kills wisdom.” 

“‘Hark!”’ cried the Hare, “if I am not worthy of 
thy clemency, I will lay my head before the 
dragon of thy vengeance. 

At breakfast-time I set out with another hare 
which the Beasts of Chase had appointed, 
for thy sake, to accompany me. 

On the road a lion attacked thy humble slave, 
attacked both the companions in travel hasten- 
ing towards thee. 

I said to him, ‘We are the slaves of the King of 
kings, two lowly fellow-servants of that exalted 
Court.’ 

He said, “The King of kings! Who is he? Be 


71 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


ashamed! Do not make mention of every base 
loon in my presence. 

Both thee and thy King I will tear to pieces 
if thou and thy friend turn back from my 
portal.’ 

I said, ‘Let me behold the face of my King 
once more and acquaint him with the news 
of thee.’ 

‘Thou must leave thy comrade with me as a 
pledge,’ said he; ‘otherwise thy life is forfeit 
according to my law.’ 

We entreated him much: ’twas no use. He 
seized my friend and left me to go my way 
alone. 

My friend was so big and plump and comely 
that he would make three of me. 

Henceforth the road is barred by that lion: the 
cord of our covenant is broken. 

Abandon hope of thy rations henceforward! I 
am telling thee the bitter truth. 

If thou want the rations, clear the road! Come 
on, then, and drive away that insolent usur- 
per!” 

“Come on in God’s name,” cried the Lion. 
‘““Show me where he is! Lead the way, if you 
are speaking the truth, 

That I may give him and a hundred like him the 
punishment they deserve—or do the same 
to you if you are lying.” 


72 


THE LION AND THE BEASTS OF CHASE 


The Hare set off, running ahead in the direc- 
tion of a deep well which was to be a snare 
for the Lion; 

But as they drew nigh to it, the Hare shrunk 
back. “‘That lion,” said he, ‘‘lives here. 

I am consumed with dread of his fury—unless 
thou wilt take me beside thee, 

That with thy support, O Mine of generosity, 
I may open my eyes and look in.”’ 

The Lion took him to his side; they ran together 
towards the well and looked in. 

The Lion saw his own reflection: from the water 
shone the image of a lion with a plump hare 
beside him. 

No sooner did he espy his adversary than he 
left the Hare and sprang into the well. 

He fell into the well which he had dug: his 
iniquity recoiled on his own head. 


The Lion saw himself in the well: he was so 
enraged that he could not distinguish him- 
self from his enemy. 

O Reader, how many an evil that you see in 
others is but your own nature reflected in 
them! 

In them appears all that you are—your hypocrisy, 
iniquity, and insolence. 

You do not see clearly the evil in yourself, else 
you would hate yourself with all your soul. 


73 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Like the Lion who sprang at his image in the 
water, you are only hurting yourself, O 
simpleton ! 

When you reach the bottom of the well of your 
own nature, then you will know that the 
wickedness is in you. 


74 


XXI 


THE SOFI AND THE EMPTY 
WALLET’ 


ONE day a Siifi espied a food-wallet hanging on 
a nail; he began to whirl in the dance and 
rend his garments, 

Crying, “Lo, the food of the foodless! Lo, the 
remedy for famine and pangs of hunger!” 
When his smoke and tumult waxed great, every 

one that was a Siifi joined him. 

They all shouted and shrieked and became 
spiritually intoxicated and beside themselves. 

An idle busybody said to the Sifi, “What is 
the matter? Only a food-wallet hung on a 
nail, and it is empty of bread.” 

‘Begone, begone!” he replied. “Thou art a 
mere form without spirit. Go, seek exist- 
ence, for thou art no lover.” 


The lover’s food is love of the bread, without 
the existence of the bread. No true lover is 
in thrall to existence. 

* Book ITI, v. 3014. 


* ¢.e. self-existence with all its egoistic wants and desires, 
which is regarded by the lover of God as the greatest sin. 


75 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Lovers have naught to do with existence: lovers 
have the interest without having the capital. 

They have no wings, and yet they fly round 
the world; they have no hands, and yet they 
carry off the ball from the polo-field. 


76 


XXII 


THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEELING 
AND THINKING* 


SOMEONE slapped Zayd on the neck; Zayd 
rushed at him with warlike purpose. 

The assailant said, “I will ask thee a question. 
First answer it, and then strike me. 

I smote the nape of thy neck, and there was 
the sound of a slap. At this point I have a 
friendly question to ask thee. 

Was the sound caused by my hand or by the 
nape of thy neck, O pride of the noble?” 
Zayd said, “On account of the pain I have no 

time to reflect on this problem. 

Do thou who art without pain reflect on it; 
he that feels the pain cannot think of such 
things.” 


1 Book III, v. 1380. This is the second of two apologues 
illustrating the attitude of emotional mysticism towards 
scholastic theology. The first story concerns an elderly man 
who was about to be married. He went to a barber and bade 
him remove the white hairs in his beard, whereupon the 
barber cut off the whole beard, laid it before his customer, 
and said to him, ‘‘Pick them out yourself, I have important 
business to attend to.” 


77 


XXITI 
THE GNAT AND THE WIND" 


THE Gnat came from the garden and the grass 
and appealed to Solomon, 

Saying, “O Solomon, thou dealest justice to 
the devils and the children of men and the 
genil. 

Bird and fish are protected by thy justice: 
where is the wretch whom thy bounty has 
not sought out? 

Give justice to us, for we are very miserable: 
we are deprived of the orchard and rose- 
garden. 

The difficulties of every weakling are solved 
by thee: the Gnat in sooth is a proverb for 
weakness. 

O thou who hast reached the limit in Power, 
while we have reached the limit in failure 
and aberration, 

Do justice, relieve us of this sorrow, support 
us, O thou whose hand is the hand of 
God.” 

‘Then Solomon asked, “Against whom art thou 
demanding justice and equity, O suitor? 

? Book III, v. 4624. 


78 


THE GNAT AND THE WIND 


Who is the tyrant that in his insolence has done 
thee injury and scratched thy face? 

Oh, wonderful! Where, in Our epoch, is the 
oppressor that 1s not in Our prison and 
chains? 

When We were born, on that day Injustice 
died: who, then, has committed in Our epoch 
an act of injustice? 

The Divine Will uttered in ‘Be, and it was’ 
hath bestowed the Kingdom on Us, that 
the people may not cry in lament to 
Heaven; 

That burning sighs may not soar upward; that 
the sky and the stars may not be shaken; 
That the empyrean may not tremble at the 
orphan’s wail; that no living soul may be 

marred by violence. 

O oppressed one, do not look to Heaven, for 
thou hast a heavenly King in the temporal 
world.” 

“I appeal,” said the Gnat, “against the fury of 
the Wind, for he hath opened the hands of 
oppression against us. 

Through his oppression we are in sore straits: 
with closed lips we are drinking blood.’’* 
Said Solomon, ‘‘O thou with the pretty voice, 
it behoves thee to hearken with all thy soul 

to the command of God, 
14,e. suffering torment. 


79 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


God hath said to me, ‘Beware, O Judge! Do not 
hear one litigant without the other. 

Until both litigants come into the presence, the 
truth does not come to light before the 
judge.’ 

I dare not avert my face from the Divine 
command. Go, bring thy adversary before 
me.” 

“Thy words,” said the Gnat, “are an argument 
conclusive and sound, My adversary is the 
Wind, and he is at thy behest.” 

The King shouted, ‘O Wind, the Gnat com- 
plains of thy injustice. Come! 

Hark, come face to face with thy adversary and 
reply to him and rebut him.” 

When the Wind heard the summons, he came 
rapidly: the Gnat at once took to flight. 

“O Gnat,” cried Solomon, “where art thou 
going? Stop, that I may pass judgement upon 
you both.” 

The Gnat answered, “O King, his being is my 
death; verily, my day is made black by his 
smoke. 

Since he has come, where shall I find peacer 
He wrings the vital breath out of my 
body.” 


Even such is the seeker at the Court of God: 
when God comes, the seeker is naughted. 


80 


THE GNAT AND THE WIND 


Although union with God is life on life, yet at 
first that life consists in dying to self. 

The shadows that seek the Light are naughted 
when His Light appears. 

How should reason remain when He bids it go? 
Everything is perishing except His Face.’ 


1 Our’Gn, xxvii, 88. 


81 G 


XXIV 


THE PRINCE WHO WAS BEATEN AT 
CHESS BY THE COURT-JESTER’ 


THE Prince of Tirmidh was playing chess with 
Dalqak. When Dalqak mated him, his anger 
burst. 

On hearing the word “Checkmate!” the haughty 
monarch threw the chessmen, one by one, at 
Dalqak’s head. 

““Here, take your ‘checkmate,’ ” he cried, “‘you 
scoundrel!’’ Dalqak controlled himself and 
only said, ‘“‘Mercy!” 

Then the Prince commanded him to play again. 

He obeyed, trembling like a naked man in bitter 
cold. 

The Prince lost the second game too, but when 
the moment arrived to say ‘Checkmate!’ 
Dalqak jumped up, ran into a corner, and 

hastily flung six rugs over himself. 

There he lay hidden beneath six rugs and several 
cushions in order to escape the Prince’s blows. 

“‘Hey!” said the Prince, “what are you doing? 

What is this ?”’ “Checkmate ! Checkmate ! Check- 
mate!’ he replied, “‘O noble Prince.” 

* Book V, v. 3507. 
82 


XXV 


THE INFANT MOHAMMED AND THE 
IDOLS’ 


I wi. tell you the story of Halima’s mystic 
experience, that her tale may clear away 
your trouble. 

When she parted Mustafa* from her milk, she 
took him up on the palm of her hand as 
though he were sweet basil and roses. 

Fearing for the safety of her precious charge, she 
went towards the Ka‘ba and entered the 
Hatim.* 

From the air she heard a voice saying, “O 
Hatim, an exceedingly mighty Sun hath 
shone upon thee. 

O Hatim, to-day there marches into thee with 
pomp a glorious King, whose harbinger is 
Fortune. 

O Hatim, to-day thou wilt surely become anew 
the abode of exalted spirits. 


* Book IV, v. 15. 

* Halima, a Bedouin woman, is said to have been Moham- 
med’s nurse and foster-mother. 

* Mohammed. 

*The name Hatim is properly given to a semi-circular 
wall adjoining the north and west corners of the Ka‘ba. 
Here it denotes the space between the wall and the Ka‘ba. 


83 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The spirits of the holy will come to thee from 
every quarter in troops and multitudes, 
drunken with desire.” 

Halima was bewildered by that voice, for neither 
in front nor behind was anyone to be seen. 
She laid Mustafa on the earth, that she might 

search after the sweet sound; 

Then she cast her eyes to and fro, saying, 
“Where is that kingly crier of mysteries?” 
Seeing no one, she became distraught and 
despairing: her body trembled like a willow- 

bough. 

She returned towards that righteous Child, but 
could not see Mustafa where she had left 
him. 

Amazement fell upon her heart: a great dark- 
ness of grief encompassed her. 

She ran to the dwellings hard by, crying, “Alas, 
who has carried off my single Pearl?” 

The Meccans said, “We have no knowledge: 
we knew not that a child was there.” 

She shed so many tears and made such a lamen- 
tation that all began to weep for her. 

Beating her breast, she sobbed so mightily that 
the stars were made to sob by her sobbing. 


An old man with a staff approached her, saying, 
“Why, what hath befallen thee, O Halima?”’ 
She replied, “I am Mohammed’s trusted foster- 


84 


THE INFANT MOHAMMED AND THE IDOLS 


mother: I was taking him back to his grand- 
sire. 

When I arrived in the Hatim, I heard voices 
from the air and laid the Child down, 

To see whence the sounds came that were so 
melodious and beautiful. 

I saw no sign of anyone about, yet the voices 
never ceased for a moment. 

I was lost in bewilderment. On coming to my- 
self, I could not see the Child. Oh, the sorrow 
of my heart!” 

““Daughter,”’ said the old man, “do not grieve. 
I will show unto thee a Queen, 

Who, if she wish, will tell thee what has hap- 
pened to the Child: she knows where he went 
and where he is now.” 

He brought her to ‘Uzzi,' saying, “This Idol 
is greatly prized for information concerning 
the Unseen. 

Through her we have found thousands who 
were lost, when we betook ourselves to her 
in devotion.”’ 

Then he bowed low before her and said, ““O 
Sovereign of the Arabs, O Sea of munifi- 
cence, 

Thou hast done many favours to us, O ‘Uzza, 
so that we have been delivered from snares. 


1QOne of three goddesses whom the pre-Islamic Arabs 
worshipped as daughters of Allah. 


85 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


In hope of thee this Halima of the tribe Sa‘d 
hath come under the shadow of thy bounty, 

For an infant child of hers is lost: the name of 
the child is Mohammed.” 

When he pronounced the name “Mohammed” 
all the Idols at once fell headlong and pros- 
trate, 

Saying, “Begone, old man! Why dost thou 
inquire after this Mohammed by whom we 
are deposed? 

By him we are overthrown and reduced to a 
heap of stones: by him we are made con- 
temptible and worthless. 

Avaunt, old man! Do not kindle mischief. 
Hark, do not burn us in the flame of Moham- 
med’s jealousy. 

Avaunt, old man, for God’s sake, lest thou too 
be burnt in the fire of Fore-ordainment. 
What squeezing of the dragon’s tail is this? 
Hast thou any inkling what the news of Mo- 

hammed’s advent is? 

At these tidings the heart of sea and mine will 
surge; at these tidings the Seven Heavens 
will tremble.” 

The old man’s staff dropped from his hand; 
his teeth chattered; like a naked man in 
winter, he shuddered and cried, ‘‘Woe is me.”’ 

When Halima saw him in such a state of terror, 
self-control deserted her. 


86 


THE INFANT MOHAMMED AND THE IDOLS 


“‘Once before,” she cried, “they of the Invisible 
carried off my Child—they of the Invisible, 
the green-winged ones of Heaven. 

Of whom shall I complain? Whom shall I tell? 
I am crazy and in a hundred minds. 

His jealousy hath closed my lips, so that I can- 
not declare the mystery: I can only say, ‘My 
Child is lost.’ 

If I should say aught else now, the people would 
bind me with chains as though I were mad.” 

The old man said to her, “‘O Halima, rejoice; 
bow down in thanksgiving, and do not rend 
thy face. 

Do not grieve: he will not be lost to thee; nay, 
but the whole world will be lost in him. 

Always, before and behind, he hath myriads of 
zealous guardians watching over him. 

Didst not thou see how the Idols, with all their 
magic arts, fell headlong at the name of thy 
Child? 

This is a marvellous epoch on the earth: I am 
grown old, but never have I witnessed aught 
like this.”’ 


87 


XXVI 


THE SUFIS WHO SOLD THE 
TRAVELLER’S ASS’ 


A Sori, after journeying, arrived at a monastery 
for dervishes; he took his mount and led it 
to the stable. 

With his own hand he gave it a little water and 
some fodder: he was not such a Siifi as the 
one we told of before.” 

He took precautions against neglect and foolish- 
ness, but when the Divine destiny comes to 
pass, of what avail is precaution? 

The Sufis were poor and destitute: poverty 
almost entails an infidelity that brings the 
soul to perdition. 

O thou rich man who art full-fed, beware of 
mocking at the unrighteousness of the suffer- 
ing poor. 

On account of their destitution that Sufi flock 
adopted the expedient of selling the Ass, 
Saying, “‘In case of necessity a carcase is law- 
ful food: many a vicious act is made virtuous 

by necessity.” 
? Book II, v. 514. 
* See Story IV. 
88 


THE SOFIS WHO SOLD THE TRAVELLER’S ASS 


Having sold the little Ass, they fetched dainty 
viands and lit candles. 

Jubilation arose in the monastery. ‘‘To-night,” 
they cried, “there shall be dainties and music 
and dancing and voracity. 

No more of this carrying the beggar’s wallet, no 
more of this abstinence and three-days’ fasting !”” 

The Traveller, tired by the long journey, re- 
joiced to see the favour with which they 
regarded him. 

One by one they caressed him and played the 
game of bestowing pleasant attentions on him. 

When he saw this, he said, “If I don’t make 
merry to-night, when shall I have such good 
reasons for it again?” 

They consumed the viands and began the sama‘ ,* 
the monastery was filled with smoke and dust 
up to the roof— 

The smoke of the kitchen, the dust raised by 
the dancing feet, the tumult of soul aroused 
by longing and ecstasy. 

Now, waving their hands, they would beat the 
floor with their feet; now, bowing low, they 
would sweep the dais with their foreheads. 

Only after long waiting does the Sufi gain his 
desire from Fortune; hence the Sifi is a 
great eater ; 

Except, to be sure, the Sufi who has eaten his 
’ The musical dance of Muslim dervishes. 


89 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


fill of the Light of God: he is free from the 
shame of beggary ; 

But of these there are only a few amongst thou- 
sands; the rest live under the protection of 
his (the perfect Sifi’s) spiritual empire. 

When the sama‘ had run its course from be- 
ginning to end, the minstrel struck up a 
deep-sounding strain. 

He sang “The Ass is gone, the Ass is gone,” 
and made the whole company sharers in the 
ditty. 

Till daybreak they were dancing rapturously, 
clapping their hands and singing “The Ass is 
gone, the Ass is gone, my son!”’ 

By way of imitation, that Sufi began to sing in 
tones of impassioned feeling the same phrase, 
‘The Ass 1s gone.” 

When the pleasure and excitement and music 
and dancing were over, day dawned and 
they all said farewell. 

The monastery was deserted and the Sufi re- 
mained alone: he set about shaking the dust 
from his baggage. 

He brought out the baggage from his cell to 
pack it on the Ass, for he desired companions 
on his journey. 

He made haste to join his fellow-travellers, but 
when he went into the stable he did not find 
the Ass. 


go 


THE SUFIS WHO SOLD THE TRAVELLER’S ASS 


“The servant,” he said to himself, ‘‘has taken 
it to water, because it drank little water last 
night.” 

When the servant came the Siifi asked, ‘‘Where 
is the Ass?” ‘‘Look at your beard,’” he re- 
plied; and this started a quarrel. 

The Siifi said, ‘I entrusted the Ass to you. I 
put you in charge of the Ass. 

Discuss the matter reasonably, don’t argue, but 
deliver back to me what I delivered to you; 
And if you obstinately refuse, then look here, 

let us go for judgement to the Cadi!” 

The servant said, ‘I was overpowered: the Siifis 
rushed on me, and I was in fear of my life. 
Do you throw a liver with the parts next it 
amongst cats and then seek the traces of it? 
One cake of bread amongst a hundred hungry 

people, one starved cat before ahundred dogs ?”’ 

“I grant,” said the Sufi, “that they took the 
Ass from you by violence, aiming at the life 
of wretched me; 

But you never came and said, “They are taking 
away your Ass, O dervish,’ 

So that I might have bought it back from the 
purchaser, or else they might have divided 
the money’ amongst themselves. 


14,e. ‘don’t ask childish questions.” 
* The money which the Safi would have paid as a ransom 
for his Ass. 


gI 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


There were a hundred ways of mending the 
matter when they were present, but now each 
one is gone to a different clime. 

Why didn’t you come and say, “O stranger, a 
terrible outrage has been committed’? ”’ 

“By God!” said he, ‘I came several times to 
inform you of these doings, 

But you went on singing “The Ass is gone, O 
son’ with more gusto than all the others; 
So I was always going away, saying to myself, 
‘He is aware of it, he is satisfied with what 

God has decreed, he is a gnostic.’ ” 

The Sifi replied, “They all sang it so gleefully, 
and I too felt delight in singing it. 

Blind imitation of them has brought me to ruin: 
a thousand curses on that imitation!” 


92 


XXVIT 


THE FOUR BEGGARS WHO WISHED TO 
BUY GRAPES’ 


A CERTAIN man gave a dirhem to four Beggars. 
One of them, a Persian, said, “I will spend it 
on angi.” 

The second, who was an Arab, cried, “Nay, I 
want ‘inab, not angiir, you rascal!” 

The third was a Turk: he said, ““The money is 
mine: I don’t want ‘inab, I want uzum.” 

The fourth, being a Greek, said, “Stop this 
talk: I want istafil.’” 

They began to fight because they were unaware 
of the meaning of the words. 

In their folly they smote each other with their 
fists: they were full of ignorance and empty 
of knowledge. 


This difference cannot be removed till a spiritual 
Solomon, skilled in tongues,” shall intervene. 
O ye wrangling birds, hearken, like the falcon, 
to the falcon-drum of the King! 
* Book II, v. 3681. 


* According to the Qur’dn, Solomon was acquainted with 
the speech of birds and animals. 


93 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Come now, from every quarter set out with 
joy, flying away from diversity towards One- 
ness. 

Wheresoever ye be, turn your faces towards it :* 
this is the thing He hath not forbidden unto 
you at any time. 


* Qur'an, II, 145. 
94 


XXVITI 
MOSES AND THE SHEPHERD" 


Moses saw a shepherd on the way, who was 
saying, “O God who choosest as Thou wilt, 

Where art Thou, that I may become Thy ser- 
vant and sew Thy shoes and comb Thy head? 

That I may wash Thy clothes and kill Thy lice 
and bring milk to Thee, O worshipful One; 

That I may kiss Thy little hand and rub Thy little 
feet and sweep Thy little room at bedtime.” 

On hearing these foolish words, Moses said, 
‘Man, to whom are you speaking!”’ 
He answered, ‘““To Him who created us and 
brought this earth and heaven to sight.” 
“Hark!” said Moses, “you are a very wicked 
man: indeed you are no true believer, you 
have become an infidel. 

What babble is this? What blasphemy and 
raving? Stuff some cotton into your mouth! 

The stench of your blasphemy hath made the 
whole world stink: your blasphemy hath 
torn the mantle of Religion to rags. 

Shoes and socks are fitting for you, but how 
are such things right for the Lord of glory? 


1 Book II, v. 1720. 
95 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Truly, the friendship of a fool is enmity: 
the high God is not in want of suchlike 
service.” 

The shepherd said, ““O Moses, thou hast closed 
my mouth and thou hast burned my soul 
with contrition.” 

He rent his garment, heaved a sigh, turned in 
haste towards the desert and went his way. 


A Revelation came to Moses from God—“Thou 
hast parted My servant from Me. 

Wert thou sent as a prophet to unite, or wert 
thou sent to sever? 

I have bestowed on everyone a particular mode 
of worship, I have given everyone a peculiar 
form of expression. 

In regard to him these words are praiseworthy, 
in regard to thee blameworthy: honey for 
him, poison for thee. 

The idiom of Hindustan is excellent in the 
Hindis; the idiom of Sind is excellent in the 
people of Sind. 

I look not at tongue and speech, I look at the 
spirit and the inward feeling. 

I gaze into the heart to see whether it be lowly, 
though the words uttered be not lowly. 

Enough of phrases and conceptions and meta- 
phors! I want burning, burning: become 
familiar with that burning! 


96 


MOSES AND THE SHEPHERD 


Light up a fire of love in thy soul, burn all 
thought and expression away ! 

O Moses, they that know the conventions are 
of one sort, they whose souls and spirits burn 
are of another sort.”’ 


The Religion of Love is apart from all religions. 
The lovers of God have no religion but God 
alone. 


97 " 


XXIX 
THE CAT AND THE MEAT" 


THERE was a man, a householder, who had a 
very sneering, sluttish, and rapacious wife. 

She would devour everything he brought 
home, and the poor man was reduced to 
silence. 

One day, having a guest, he brought home some 
meat which had cost him infinite toil and 
hardship. 

His wife ate it up; she consumed all the kabab’ 
and wine, and when her husband came in she 
put him off with lies. 

““Where is the meat?” he asked. “Our guest 
has arrived: one must set nice food before a 
guest.” 

“The cat has eaten it,’’ said she; “go and buy 
some more if possible.” 

He called his servant. “‘Fetch the scales, Aybak: 
I will weigh the cat.” 

He found that the cat weighed half a maund.° 
*“O deceitful woman,” he cried, 


? Book V, v. 3409. 
2 Roast meat. 
® The man (maund) is about two pounds avoirdupois. 


98 


THE CAT AND THE MEAT 


“The meat was half a maund and six drachms 
over, and the cat is just half a maund, my 
lady! 

If this is the cat, then where is the meat? or if 
this is the meat, where is the cat?”’ 


99 


XXX 


HOW BAYAZID PERFORMED THE 
PILGRIMAGE" 


ON his way to the Ka‘ba, Bayazid sought earn- 
estly to meet the Khizr of the age.” 

He espied an old man whose body was curved 
like the new moon; in him was the majesty 
and lofty speech of saints; 

His eyes sightless, his heart radiant as the sun; 
like an elephant dreaming of Hindustan, 
Beholding with closed eyes a hundred delights ; 
when his eyes open, he sees naught thereof. 

How wonderful! 

Many a wonder is made manifest in sleep: in 
sleep the heart becomes a window. 

He that is awake and dreams fair dreams 1s the 
knower of God: smear your eyes with his 
dust ! 

Bayazid sat down before him and asked about 


* Book II, v. 2231. Bayazid of Bistim was a famous 
Persian Safi of the ninth century. 

* z.e. the supreme head of the hierarchy of saints. Khizr, 
sometimes identified with Elijah, is a mysterious personage 
who gained immortality by drinking of the Water of Life. 
The Sifis believe that he meets them in their wanderings, 
or appears in their visions, and imparts to them all sorts of 
esoteric lore. 


100 


HOW BAYAZID PERFORMED THE PILGRIMAGE 


his condition: he found him to be a dervish 
and also a family man. 

““O Bayazid,” said he, “whither art thou faring? 
To what place wouldst thou take the baggage 
of travel in a strange land?”’ 

Bayazid answered, “I start for the Ka‘ba at 
daybreak.”’ “Eh,” cried the other, “what 
hast thou as provision for the road?” 

“Two hundred silver dirhems,”’ said he. ‘“‘Here 
they are, tied in the corner of my cloak.” 
He said, “‘Make a circuit seven times round 
me, and reckon this to be better than the 

circumambulation of the Ka‘ba; 

And lay the dirhems before me, O generous 
man. Know that thou hast made the Greater 
Pilgrimage’ and won to thy desire, 

And thou hast performed the Lesser Pilgrim- 
age’ too and gained the life everlasting, and 
thou hast run up the Hill of Purity and been 
purged. 

By the truth of the Truth which thy soul hath 
seen, I swear that He hath chosen me above 
His House. 

Albeit the Ka‘ba is the House of His worship, 
my form in which I was created is the House 
of His inmost mystery. 

* Hajj. 
*“Umra. 


>The Hill Safa, which the pilgrims ascend after having 
performed the ceremony of circumambulation (tawdf). 


Io! 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Never since God made the Ka‘ba hath He 
entered it, and none but the Living God 
hath ever entered into this House of mine. 

When thou hast seen me thou hast seen God: 
thou hast circled round the true Ka‘ba. 

To serve me is to obey and glorify God. Be- 
ware! Deem not that God is separate from 
me. 

Open thine eyes well and look on me, that thou 
mayst behold the Light of God in man.” 
Bayazid gave heed to these mystic sayings and 

put them as a golden ring in his ear. 


102 


XXXI 


THE ARAB OF THE DESERT AND HIS 
DOG’ 


THE dog was dying, the Arab was shedding 
tears and crying, “Woe is me!” 

A passing beggar asked him the cause of his tears, 
and for whom he was making such a lament. 

He replied, “I owned a dog of excellent dis- 
position; look, he is dying on the road. 

He hunted for me by day and kept watch at 
night; he was a sharp-eyed hunter and a 
driver away of thieves.” 

“What is the matter with him? Has he been 
wounded?” “No; the pangs of hunger have 
brought him to the last gasp.”’ 

“Show patience in this trouble and affliction: 
the grace of God bestows a recompense on 
those who suffer patiently.” 

Afterwards the beggar said to him, “O noble 
chief, what is inside this well-filled wallet in 
your hand?” 

“Bread,” said he, ‘‘and the remnants of last 
night’s meal: I am taking them with me to 
nourish my body.” 

? Book V, wv. 477. 
103 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


‘‘Why don’t you give them to the dog?” “I 
have not love and charity to that extent. 

One cannot get bread on the road without spend- 
ing money, but tears cost nothing.” 

“Dust on thy head,” cried the beggar, ‘thou 
water-skin full of wind! To thee a crust of 
bread is more precious than tears.” 


104 


XXXIT 


THE TEACHER WHO IMAGINED HE 
WAS ILL* 


THE boys in a certain school, who suffered at the 
hands of their master from weariness and toil, 

Consulted how they might stop his work and 
compel him to let them go. 

One, the cleverest of them all, proposed that 
he should say, ‘“‘Master, why are you so pale? 

I hope you are well. You have lost your colour: 
is it the effect of bad air or of fever?”’ 

He continued, ‘On hearing this he will begin 
to fancy that he is ill. Do you too, brother, 
help me in like manner. 

When you come in through the school door 
say to him, ‘Master, is your health good?’ 
Then that fancy of his will increase a little, for 

fancy can drive a sensible man mad. 

After us, let the third boy and the fourth and 
fifth show the same sympathy and concern, 

So that, when thirty boys in succession tell this 
story, it may settle down in his mind.” 

“Bravo!” cried the boys; “‘may your fortune rest 
on God’s favour, O sagacious one!”’ 

1 Book III, v. 1522. 
105 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


They agreed, in firm covenant, that no fellow 
should alter the words; 

And then, lest any tell-tale should reveal the 
plot, he administered an oath to them all. 
The counsel of that boy prevailed over his com- 
panions; his intellect was the leader of the 

flock. 

There is the same difference in human minds 
as in the outward forms of those who are 
beloved.* 

From this point of view Mohammed said that a 
man’s excellence lies hidden in his tongue.’ 


Next day, thinking of nothing else, the boys 
came from their homes to the “shop,” 

And stood outside, waiting for that resolute 
fellow to go in first, 

Because he was the source of the plan: the head 
is always an Imam to the foot. 

He went in and said to the master, “‘Salaam! I 
hope you are well: you look pale.” 

The master said, ‘‘I have no ailment. Go and sit 
down and don’t talk nonsense, hey!”’ 

He denied it, but the dust of vain imagination 
struck a little upon his mind. 
1 The poet’s doctrine of the innate difference in human 

intellects is opposed to that of the Mu'tazilites, who held 

that men are originally equal in this respect and that all 


diversities arise from learning and experience. 
?7.e. until he speaks, no one can judge of his intelligence. 


106 


THE TEACHER WHO IMAGINED HE WAS ILL 


Another boy came in and said the like, which 
strengthened that imagination a little more; 

And so on and so on, till at last he was exceed- 
ingly alarmed as to his state of health. 

The master became unnerved; he sprang up 
and slowly made his way home, 

Angry with his wife and saying, “Her love is 
weak: I am so ill, and she never asked or 
inquired ; | 

She did not even inform me about my colour: 
she is ashamed of me and wishes to be free.” 

He came home and fiercely opened the door, 
the boys following at his heels. 

His wife said, “‘Is it well with thee? How hast 
thou come so soon? May no evil happen to 
thy goodly person!” 

He said, “Are you blind? Look at my colour 
and appearance; even strangers are lament- 
ing my affliction, 

While you, within my house, from hatred and 
hypocrisy, do not see what anguish I am 
suffering.” 

“O Sir,”’ said his wife, “there is nothing wrong 
with thee: ’tis only thy vain fancyand opinion.” 

He replied, ‘‘Will you still be wrangling, O 
harlot? Don’t you see the change in my looks 
and how I tremble? 

If you are blind and deaf, what fault of mine 1s 
it? I am in pain and grief and woe.” 


107 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


She said, “Sir, I will bring the mirror in order 
that thou mayst know I am innocent.”’ 

““Begone,” said he; “a plague on you and your 
mirror! You are always engaged in hatred 
and malice and sin. 

Lay my bed at once, that I may lie down, for 
my head is sore.”’ 

The wife lingered; he bawled at her, “‘Be quick, 
odious creature! This is just like you!” 


The old woman brought the bed-clothes and 
spread them. She said to herself, “I can do 
no more, though my heart is burning. 

If I speak, he will suspect me; and if I say 
nothing, the affair will become serious. 

If I tell him he is not ill, he will imagine that I 
have an evil design and am making arrange- 
ments to be alone. 

‘She is getting me out of the house,’ he will say; 
“she is plotting some wickedness.’ ”’ 

As soon as the bed was made the master threw 
himself down, sighing and moaning con- 
tinually, 

While the boys sat round, reciting their lesson 
with a hundred sorrows in secret, 

Thinking, ‘‘We have done all this, and still we 
are detained: it was a badly built plan and 
we are bad builders.” 


108 


THE TEACHER WHO IMAGINED HE WAS ILL 


The clever boy said, ‘‘O good fellows, recite the 
lesson and make your voices loud.” 

When they raised their voices he said, ‘‘Boys, 
the noise we are making will do the master 
harm. 

His headache will increase: is it worth his while 
to suffer such pain for the sake of a few 
pence?” 

The master said, “He is right. Go away! My 
headache is worse. Get out!” 

They bowed and said, “‘O honoured Sir, may 
illness and danger be far from you!” 

Thén they bounded off to their homes, like birds 
in quest of grain. 

Their mothers were angry with them and said, 
““A school-day and you at play!”’ 

Fach boy offered excuses, saying, “Stop, 
mother! This sin does not proceed from us 
and is not caused by our fault. 

By the destiny of Heaven our master has be- 
come ill and sick and afflicted.” 

The mothers said, “It is a trick and a lie: ye 
invent a hundred lies in your greed for amuse- 
ment. 

To-morrow we will visit the master, that we 
may see what is at the bottom of this trick of 
yours.” 

““Go in God’s name,” said the boys, ‘‘and find 
out whether we are lying or telling the truth.’”” 


109 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Next morning the mothers came and found the 
master in bed, like one who is gravely ill, 
Perspiring under a great many coverlets, his 
head bandaged and his face enveloped in the 

quilt. 

He was moaning softly. They all began to cry, 
“La hawl.’”” 

They said, ‘Master, may all be well! This 
headache—by thy soul, we were not aware of 
it.” 

‘Neither was I,” said he, ‘“‘till these rascals 
called my attention to it. 

I was teaching and too busy to take notice, 
though such a grave malady lurked within 
me.” 


1 See p. 17, note 2. 
IIO 


XXXII 
THE UNSEEN ELEPHANT" 


THE Elephant was in a dark house: some Hindiis 
had brought it for exhibition. 

As seeing it with the eye was impossible, every- 
one felt it in the dark with the palm of his 
hand. 

The hand of one fell on its trunk: he said, ‘“This 
creature is like a water-pipe.”’ 

Another touched its ear: to him it appeared 
like a fan. 

Another handled its leg: he said, ‘I found the 
Elephant’s shape to be like a pillar.”’ 

Another laid his hand on its back: he said, 
“Truly this Elephant resembles a throne.” 

Had there been a candle in each one’s hand, the 
difference would have gone out of their words. 


1 Book III, v. 1259. Religions are many, but God is One. 
The intellect, groping in the dark, cannot form any true 
conception of His nature. Only the clairvoyant eye of the 
mystic sees Him as he really is. 


IIl 


XXXIV 
PHARAOH AND HIS MAGICIANS’ 


WHEN Moses had returned home, Pharaoh 
called his advisers and counsellors to his 
presence. 

They deemed it right that the King and Ruler 
of Egypt should assemble the magicians from 
all parts of Egypt. 

Thereupon he sent many men in every direction 
to collect the sorcerers. 

In whatsoever region there was a renowned 
magician, he sent flying towards him ten 
active couriers. 

There were two youths, famous magicians: 
their magic penetrated into the heart of the 
moon. 

They milked the moon publicly and openly; in 
their journeys they went mounted on a wine- 
jar. 

They caused the moonshine to seem like a piece 
of linen; they measured and sold it speedily 
And took the silver away: the purchaser, on 
becoming aware of the fraud, would smite his 

hand upon his cheeks in grief. 
1 Book IIT, v. 1157. 
112 


PHARAOH AND HIS MAGICIANS 


They invented a hundred thousand such tricks 
of sorcery and did not follow behind, like 
the rhyme-letter.* 

When the King’s message reached them, to 
this effect: ‘“The King desires your aid, 

Because two dervishes’ have come and marched 
against the King and his palace. 

They have naught with them except a rod, 
which becomes a dragon at his command. 
The King and the whole army are helpless: all 
have been brought to lamentation by these 

twain. 

A remedy must be sought in magic, that maybe 
ye will save their lives from these enchan- 
ters’’— 

When the King’s courier gave the message to 
the two young magicians, a great fear and 
love descended on the hearts of them both. 

The vein of spiritual affinity began to throb,” 
and in amazement they laid their heads upon 
their knees. 

Inasmuch as the knee is the Sifi’s school,* the 
two knees are sorcerers for solving a diffi- 
culty. 


1 4,.e. they did not imitate others. 

? Moses and Aaron. 

® Because God had predestined them to have faith in 
Moses and become his followers. 

“ Referring to the attitude of Safis when engaged in holy 
meditation. 


113 I 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


How those two magicians summoned their father 
from the grave and questioned their father’s spirit 
concerning the real nature of Moses, on whom 
be peace. 


Afterwards they said, ““Come, O mother, where 
is our father’s grave? Do thou show us the 
way.” 

She led them to his grave: there they kept a 
three-days’ fast for the sake of the King. 

Then they said, “O father, the King in con- 
sternation hath sent us a message 

That two men have brought him to sore straits 
and destroyed his prestige with the army. 

There is not with them any weapons or soldiers; 
nothing but a rod, and in the rod is a calamity 
and bane. 

Thou art gone into the world of the righteous, 
though to outward seeming thou liest in a 
tomb. 

If that be magic, inform us; and if it be divine, 
O spirit of our father, 

In that case too inform us, so that we may bow 
down before them and bring ourselves in 
touch with an elixir.’ 

We are despairing, and a hope has come; we 
are banished, and Mercy has drawn us back.”’ 


The prophets and saints are often compared to the 
Philosophers’ Stone which transmutes base metal into pure 
gold. 


114 


PHARAOH AND HIS MAGICIANS 


How the dead Magician answered his sons. 


He cried, ‘‘O my dearest sons, it rests with God 
to declare this matter plainly. 

It is not permitted to me to speak openly and 
freely, though the mystery is not far from 
mine eye; 

But I will show unto you a sign, that this hidden 
thing may be made manifest to you. 

O light of mine eyes, when ye go thither be- 
come acquainted with the place where he 
sleeps, 

And at the time when that Sage is asleep make 
for the rod, abandon fear. 

If thou art able to steal it, he is a magician: the 
means of dealing with a magician are present 
with thee; 

But if thou canst not steal it, beware, beware! 
That man is of God, he is the messenger of 
the Almighty and is divinely guided. 

Let Pharaoh occupy the world from east to 
west, he will fall headlong. God and then 
war !* 

I give thee this true sign, O soul of thy father, 
inscribe it in thy heart: God best knoweth 
the truth. 

O soul of thy father, when a magician sleeps, 
there is none to direct his magic and craft. 


* t.e. the idea of opposing God is absurd. 
115 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


When the shepherd has gone to sleep, the wolf 
becomes unafraid; when he falls asleep, his 
work is done; 

But what hope or way hath the wolf to reach 
the animal whose shepherd is God? 

O soul of thy father, this is the decisive sign: 
even if a prophet die, God exalteth him.” 


Comparison of the sublime Qur’dn to the rod of 
Moses, and the death of Mohammed, on whom 
be peace, to the sleep of Moses, and those who 
would alter the Qur’an to the two young Magi- 
cians who atiempted to carry off therod of Moses 
when they found him asleep. 


The lovingkindness of God made a promise to 
Mohammed, saying, “If thou shalt die, yet 
this Lesson’ shall not die. 

I will exalt thy Book and Miracle, I will defend 
the Qur’an from those who would make it 
more or less. 

I will exalt thee in both worlds, I will drive 
away the scoffers from thy Tidings. 

None shall be able to add or omit therein. Do 
not thou seek a guardian better than Me. 


1 The conclusion of the Story may be summarised in a 
few words. When the two Magicians approach Moses, the 
Rod turns into a Dragon. They flee in panic, are stricken 
with fever, and at the point of death entreat Moses to pardon 
eu presumption, acknowledging him to be the prophet of 

od. 

? The Qur’dn. 


116 


PHARAOH AND HIS MAGICIANS 


Day by day I will increase thy splendour; I 
will strike thy name on gold and silver. 

For thy sake I will prepare pulpit and prayer- 
niche: in My love for thee thy vengeance 
hath become My vengeance. 

Thy followers, from fear, utter thy name 
covertly and hide when they perform their 
prayers; 

From terror and dread of the accursed infidels 
thy Religion is hidden underground; 

But I will fill the world from end to end with 
minarets; I will blind the eyes of the recalci- 
trant. 

Thy servants will occupy cities and seize power: 
thy Religion will extend from the Fish to the 
Moon.’ 

I will keep it living until the Resurrection: be 
not thou afraid of the annulment of thy 
Religion, O Mustafa! 

O My Prophet, thou art not a sorcerer: thou art 
truthful, thou wearest the mantle of Moses. 
To thee the Qur’an is even as the rod of Moses: 

it swallows up infidelities like a dragon. 

Tf thou sleepest beneath a sod, yet deem as his 
rod My Word which thou hast spoken. 

Assailants have no power over his rod. Sleep, 
then, O King, a blessed sleep! 


The Earth was supposed by Muslim cosmogonists to 
rest on the back of a Fish floating in a great Ocean. 


117 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


Whilst thy body is asleep in the tomb, thy Light 
in Heaven" hath strung a bow for thy war 
against the infidels. 

The philosopher and that which his mouth 
doeth—the bow of thy Light is piercing them 
with arrows.” 

Thus He did, and even more than He said. 
The Prophet slept, but his fortune and pros- 
perity slumbered not. 


1 The pre-existent form of Mohammed, which is the first 
thing that God created, was conceived as a celestial Light: 
this Light (Nur Muhammadi) became incarnate in Adam 
and in the whole series of prophets after him from generation 
to generation until its final appearance in the historical 
Mohammed himself. According to the Shi‘ites, however, it 
passed from Mohammed to ‘Ali and the Imams of his 
House, while the Stfi saints also claim to be its torch- 
bearers. 


118 


XXXV 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY’ 


A LOVED one said to her lover, “O youth, thou 
hast seen many cities abroad. 

Which of them, then, is the fairest?” He re- 
plied, ‘The city where my sweetheart dwells.” 

Wherever the carpet is spread for our King ’tis 
a spacious plain though it be narrow as the 
eye of a needle. 

Wherever there is a Joseph beautiful as the 
moon, ’tis Paradise, even if it be the bottom 
of a well. 


1 Book III, v. 3808. 
119 


XXXVI 
THE PATIENCE OF LUQMAN’ 


LuQmMaN went to David, the pure of heart, and 
observed that he was making rings of iron, 
And that the exalted King was casting the rings 

into each other.” 

He had not seen the armourer’s handicraft be- 
fore: he was astonished, and his curiosity 
increased— 

‘What can this be? I will ask him what he is 
making with the interwoven rings.” 

Again he said to himself, “Patience is better: 
patience is the quickest guide to the object 
of one’s search.” 

When you ask no questions, the sooner will the 
secret be disclosed to you: the bird, patience, 
flies faster than all others; 

And if you ask, the more slowly will your object 
be gained: what is easy will be made difficult 
by your impatience. 

When Luqman kept silence, straightway the 
ring-making was finished by David’s crafts- 
manship. 


1 Book III, v. 1842. 
* God taught David the art of making coats of mail 
(Our’an, xxi, 80). 


120 


THE PATIENCE OF LUQMAN 


Then he fashioned a coat of mail and put it on 
in the presence of the noble and patient Luq- 
man. 

““This,” he said, “is an excellent garment, O 
young man, for warding off blows on the 
battlefield.” 

Luqmian said, “‘Patience too is of good effect, 
for it is the protection and defence against 
pain everywhere.” 


I2I 


XXXVIT 
HOW JESUS FLED FROM THE FOOLS’ 


Jesus, son of Mary, was fleeing to a mountain: 
you would say that a lion wished to shed his 
blood. 

A certain man ran after him and said, “Is it 
well? There is none pursuing thee: why art 
thou fleeing like a bird?” 

But Jesus still ran on so quickly that on account 
of his haste he did not answer him. 

The man went in pursuit of Jesus for the dis- 
tance of one or two fields; then he invoked 
Jesus with the utmost earnestness, 

Saying, “For God’s sake, stop one moment! I 
have a difficulty concerning thy flight. 

From whom art thou fleeing, O noble one? No 
lion is chasing thee, no enemy, and there ts 
no fear or danger.” 

He said, “I am fleeing from the fool. Be- 
gone! I am saving myself. Do not hinder 
me!’ 

“Why,” said he, “art not thou the Messiah by 
whom the blind and deaf are restored to 
sight and hearing?”’ 

7 Book III, v. 2570. 
122 


HOW JESUS FLED FROM THE FOOLS 


He said, “‘Yea.” Said the other, ‘‘Art not thou 
the King in whom the spells of the Unseen 
World have their abode, 

So that, when thou chantest them over a dead 
man, he springs up like a lion that has caught 
his prey?” 

He said, “‘Yea, I am he.”’ Said the other, ‘‘Dost 
not thou make living birds out of clay," O 
beauteous one?”’ 

He said, “‘Yea.”’ Said the other, “Then, O pure 
Spirit, thou doest whatsoever thou wilt: of 
whom hast thou fear? 

With such miraculous evidence, who in the 
world would not be a slave devoted to 
thee ?”’ 

Jesus said, “By the holy Essence of God, the 
Maker of the body and the Creator of the 
soul in eternity ; 

By the sanctity of the pure Essence and Attri- 
butes of Him for whose sake the collar of 
Heaven is rent, 

I swear that the spells and the Most Great 
Name which I pronounced over the deaf and 
blind were good in their effects. 

I pronounced them over the stony mountain: 
it was cloven and tore upon itself its mantle 
down to the navel. 

I pronounced them over the corpse: it came to 
Qur'an, III, 43. | 

123 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


life. I pronounced them over nonentity: it 
became entity. 

I pronounced them lovingly over the heart of 
the fool hundreds of thousands of times, and 
twas no cure for his folly.” 


124 


XXXVITI 


THE MAN WHO THOUGHT HE HAD 
PRAYED TO GOD IN VAIN’ 


ONE night a certain man was crying “Allah!” 
till his lips grew sweet with praise of Him. 
The Devil said, “Prithee, O garrulous one, 
where is the response ‘Here am I’ to all this 

‘Allah’? 

Not a single response is coming from the 
Throne: how long will you cry ‘Allah’ with 
grim face?” 

He became broken-hearted and lay down to 
sleep: in a dream he saw Khadir* amidst the 
verdure, 

Who said, “Hark, you have held back from 
praising God: why do you repent of having 
called unto Him?” 

He replied, “No ‘Here am I’ is coming to me 
in response, hence I fear that 1 am turned 
away from the Door.” 

Said Khadir, ‘Nay; God saith, “That ‘Allah’ 
of thine is My ‘Here am I,’ and that suppli- 


’ Book ITI, v. 189. 
* For Khadir or Khizr, see p. 100, note 2. 


125 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


cation and grief and ardour of thine is My 
messenger to thee. 

Thy fear and love are the noose to catch My 
favour: beneath every ‘O Lord’ of thine is 
many a “Here am I’ from Me.’” 


126 


XXXIX 
THE HOUSE BUILT ON HYPOTHESES’ 


A HOMELESS man was hastily seeking a house. 
One of his friends took him to a house in 
ruins 

And remarked, “‘If it had a roof, it would do 
for you to live in, and you would be almost 
next door to me. 

Your family too would be comfortable, if there 
were another room in it.” 

“Yes,” he replied, “it is nice to live beside 
friends but, my dear soul, one cannot lodge 
in IF,” 


1 Book II, vo. 739. 
127 


XL 


SULTAN MUHAMMAD KHWARAZMSHAH 
AND THE PEOPLE OF SABZAWAR’ 


MuHammabD Alp Ulugh Khwarazmshah marched 
against Sabzawar, which was a city of refuge 
for all rascals.” 

When his troops had reduced it and were about 
to massacre the foe, 

They threw themselves at his feet, crying, 
“Mercy! Make us thralls, only spare our 
lives. 

Whatsoever tax and tribute thou mayst demand, 
we will pay that and more to thee at every 
season. 

O lion-hearted King, our lives are thine, but 
leave them in trust with us for a little while.” 

He replied, “Ye shall not save your lives from 
me unless ye bring an Abi Bakr into my 
presence." 


1 Book V, v. 845. Sultan Muhammad Khwarazmshah 
(1199-1220 A.D.) ruled over a great empire in Central Asia. 
He fled before the Mongols and died in exile. Sabzawar 
was situated in the Bayhaq district to the west of Nishapir. 

* Most of its population were fanatical Shiites. 

* Any person bearing the name of the first orthodox 
Caliph would be anathema in such a hotbed of heresy. 


128 


SULTAN MUHAMMAD KHWARAZMSHAH 


Unless ye bring someone whose name is Abi 
Bakr as a gift to me from your city, O mis- 
creants, 

I will mow you down like corn, ye vile people! 
I will accept neither tribute nor fair words.”’ 

They offered him many sacks of gold, saying, 
“Do not demand an Abi Bakr from a city 
like this. 

How should there be an Abi Bakr in Sabzawar, 
or a dry clod at the bottom of the river ?”’ 
The King averted his face from the gold and 
said, ‘‘O infidels, unless ye present me with 

an Abi Bakr, 

"Tis of no avail. I am not a child, that I should 
stand dumbfounded at the sight of gold and 
silver.” 

O base wretch, until thou prostrate thyself in 
prayer thou wilt not be saved, even if thou 
shouldst traverse the whole mosque on thy 
séant.’ 


They despatched emissaries, right and left, to 
search for an Abi Bakr in this God-forsaken 
place, 

And after three days and nights spent in hurry- 
ing to and fro an emaciated man of that name 
was discovered. 

He was a wayfarer, who had fallen ill: they 
1 This verse is a comment by the poet. 

129 K 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


found him lying at the point of death in a 
corner of a ruined house. 

“Rise up!” they cried; “the Sultan hath sum- 
moned thee. Thou wilt be the means of saving 
our people from massacre.” 

He answered, “If my feet could carry me, I 
would have gone on to my destination. 

How should I have remained in this abode of 
my enemies? I would have journeyed to- 
wards the city of my friends.” 

They brought a bier and lifted upon it the Abii 
Bakr whom I celebrate, 

And the bearers set off to convey him to Khwar- 
azmshah, in order that the King might be- 
hold the sign. 


Sabzawar is this world, where the man of God 
is abandoned and left to perish. 

Khwarazmshah is God Almighty, who demands 
of this unrighteous people the gift of a pure 
heart. 


130 


XLI 


THE MAN WHO WISHED TO LEARN THE 
LANGUAGE OF BEASTS AND BIRDS’ 


A YOUNG man said to Moses, ‘“Teach me the 
language of the animals, 

That perchance from the voice of animals and 
wild beasts I may get a lesson concerning my 
religion. 

Since the languages of the children of Adam 
are entirely for the sake of acquiring wealth 
and reputation, 

It may be that the animals have a different care 
—namely, to meditate on the hour of passing 
away from the world.” 

“Begone,” said Moses; “abandon this vain 
desire, for it is fraught with much danger 
before and behind. 

Seek the religious lesson and the gift of spiritual 
wakefulness from God, not from books and 
words and lips.”’ 

He answered, ‘“‘O generous one, ’tis unworthy 
of thy bounty to disappoint me of the object 
of my desire. 


? Book III, v. 3266, 


THE MAN WHO WISHED TO LEARN 


Thou art the vicegerent of God: if thou prevent 
me, I shall be in despair.” 

Moses said, “‘O Lord, surely the accursed 
Devil has taken possession of this simple 
man. 

If I teach him, it will be harmful to him; 
and if I refuse to teach him, he will lose 
heart.” 

God said, “Teach him, O Moses, for We in 
our lovingkindness never reject anyone’s 
prayer. 

Grant his wish: let him have a free hand to 
choose good or evil.”’ 

Once more did Moses warn him kindly, saying, 
“The thing thou desirest will make thy face 
pale. 

Give up this idle passion, fear God! The Devil 
hath instructed thee for his own cunning 
purposes.” 

He replied, ‘‘At any rate, teach me the language 
of the dog at the door and the feathered 
domestic fowl.”’ 

‘“‘Hark,” said Moses, “thou knowest best! Go, 
thy wish is granted: the language of both will 
be revealed to thee.” 


At daybreak, in order to make trial, he stood 
waiting on the threshold. 
The maid-servant shook the table-cloth; a 


132 


THE LANGUAGE OF BEASTS AND BIRDS 


piece of bread, the remains of last night’s 
supper, fell out. 

A Cock snatched it up, as though it were the 
stake in a race. The Dog cried, ‘‘You have 
defrauded me. 

You can eat corn and barley and other grains, 
while I cannot, O jubilant one. 

And now you deprive the dogs of this little 
crust of bread, the bread which belongs to 
us!” 

“Hush!” said the Cock, “‘do not grieve. God 
will give you something else instead of this. 

The Master’s horse is about to die: to-morrow 
eat your fill and be happy. 

The horse’s death will be a feast-day for the 
dogs: you will get plenty of food without toil 
or trouble.” 

On hearing this speech, the man sold his horse. 
The Cock was disgraced in the eyes of the 
Dog. 

Next day the Cock carried off the bread as 
before, and the Dog opened his mouth at 
him, 

Saying, ‘‘O deceitful Cock, how long will you 
tell such lies? You are unrighteous and false 
and ignoble. 

Where is the horse that you said would die? 
You are like a blind astrologer, your predic- 
tions are devoid of truth.” 


133 


THE MAN WHO WISHED TO LEARN 


That knowing Cock answered, ‘‘His horse died 
in another place. 

He sold the horse and escaped from loss: he 
cast the loss upon others; 

But to-morrow his mule will die, and that 
will be good luck for the dogs. Say no 
more.”’ 

The covetous man immediately sold _ the 
mule and delivered himself from grief and 
loss. 

On the third day the Dog addressed the Cock— 
‘O prince of liars with your drums and kettle- 
drums!”’ 

“Yes,” said the Cock, “he sold the mule in 
haste; but to-morrow his slave will be stricken 
down, 

And when his slave dies, the next of kin will 
scatter pieces of bread upon the dogs and 
beggars.”’ 

The Master heard this and sold his slave: 
he was saved from loss, he beamed with 
joy. 

Next day the disappointed Dog said, “O drivel- 
ling Cock, where are all those good things 
you promised me? 

How long, pray, will your falsehood and deceit 
continue? Verily, nothing but falsehood flies 
out of your nest.” 

The Cock answered, ‘“‘Far be it from me and 


134 


THE LANGUAGE OF BEASTS AND BIRDS 


from my kind that we should be afflicted 
with falsehood. 

We cocks are veracious like the muezzin: we 
are observers of the sun and seekers of the 
right time. 

Though you clap us under an inverted bowl, 
we still watch the sun inwardly. 

To-morrow the Master himself will certainly die: 
his heir will slaughter a cow for the funeral. 

High and low will get pieces of bread and 
dainties and viands in the midst of the 
street.” 


When the man heard these things, he ran in hot 
haste to the door of Moses, with whom God 
conversed, 

Rubbing his face in the dust from fear, and 
crying, ‘‘ Save me fromthis doom, O Kalim!’” 

Moses said to him, “Go, sell thyself and escape! 
Since thou art so clever in avoiding loss, jump 
out of the pit of death! 

Throw the loss upon true believers! Make thy 
purses and scrips double in size! 

I beheld in the brick this destiny which to thee 
became visible only in the mirror. 

The intelligent foresee the end at the beginning, 
the foolish see it only at the end.” 


1 Moses is called Kalimu’llah, because God spoke to him 
(kallamahu) on Mount Sinai. 


135 


THE MAN WHO WISHED TO LEARN 


Once more he made lamentation, saying, ‘‘O 
bounteous one, do not beat me on the head, 
do not rub into my face the sin I have com- 
mitted.” 

Moses replied, “‘An arrow sped fromthe Archer’s 
thumbstall, my lad; ’tis not the rule that it 
should turn back; 

But I will crave of God’s good dispensation 
that thou mayst take the Faith with thee at 
that hour. 

When thou hast taken the Faith with thee, thou 
art living: when thou goest with the Faith 
thou art enduring for ever.” 


At the same instant the Master became indis- 
posed: he felt qualms and they brought the 
basin. 

"Tis the qualms of death, not indigestion: how 
should vomiting avail thee, O foolish ill- 
fortuned man? 

Four persons carried him home: one of his legs 
was pressed on the other.’ 

At dawn Moses began his orison, crying, ““O 
God, do not take the Faith away from 
him! 

Act in royal fashion, forgive him, though he 
has sinned and behaved with impudence and 
transgressed exceedingly.” 

+ In the death-agony. Cf. Qur’dn, Ixxv, 29. 
136 


THE LANGUAGE OF BEASTS AND BIRDS 


God answered, “‘Yes, I bestow the Faith upon 
him, and if thou wish I will bring him to life 
at this moment. 

Nay, at this moment I will bring to life all the 
dead in the earth for thy sake.” 


137 


XLII 
THE FRIEND WHO SAID “IT” 


A CERTAIN man knocked at his friend’s door: 
his friend asked, ‘‘Who is there ?”’ 

He answered, “I.” “Begone,” said his friend, 
‘tis too soon: at my table there is no place 
for the raw.” 

How shall the raw one be cooked but in the 
fire of absence? What else will deliver him 
from hypocrisy? 

He turned sorrowfully away, and for a whole 
year the flames of separation consumed him; 

Then he came back and again paced to and fro 
beside the house of his friend. 

He knocked at the door with a hundred fears 
and reverences, lest any disrespectful word 
might escape from his lips. 

‘‘Who is there ?”’ cried his friend. He answered, 
“Thou, O charmer of all hearts!’ 

‘““Now,”’ said the friend, ‘‘since thou art I, come 
in: there is no room for two I’s in this house.”’ 


* Book I, v. 3056. 
138 


XLITI 
THE PEOPLE OF SABA’ 


I aM reminded of the story of the people of 
Saba—how their balmy zephyr (saba) was 
turned into pestilence (wabd) by the words 
of the foolish.’ 

That kingdom of Saba resembles the great 
big city which you may hear of from children 
in their tales. 

The children relate tales, but in their tales is 
enfolded many a mystery and moral. 

Though they tell many ridiculous things, yet 
do thou ever seek the treasure that is hidden 
in ruins. 

Once there was a City very huge and great,’ 
but its size was the size of a saucer, no more 
than that. 

It was very huge and very broad and very long, 
ever so big, as big as an onion. 


1 Book III, v. 2600. Saba is the Sheba of the Bible. 

* The Story of the Sabzans—their frowardness, their in- 
gratitude for the blessings which they enjoyed, and their 
consequent destruction—is related in Book ITI, v. 282 foll. 

® This is “the children’s tale.” The “City” signifies the 
Nature of Man, the microcosm in which the macrocosm 1s 
contained. 


139 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The people of ten cities were assembled within 
it, but the whole amounted to three fellows 
with unwashed faces. 

Within it were numberless people and folk, but 
the whole of them amounted to three beggarly 
fools. 

One was very far-sighted and blind—blind 
to Solomon and seeing the leg of the 
ant;” 

And the second was very sharp of hear- 
ing and exceedingly deaf—a treasure in 
which there is not a barley-corn’s weight 
of gold; 

And the third was naked and bare and in- 
decent, but the skirts of his raiment were 
long. 

The blind man said, “Look, an army is ap- 
proaching: I see what people they are and 
how many.” 

The deaf man said, “Yes; I hear their voices 
and know what they are saying openly and 
secretly.” 

The naked man said, “I am afraid they will 
cut off something from the length of my 
skirt.” 

The blind man said, “Look, they have come 


1 Referring to the ant which said (Qur’dn, xxvii, 18), ‘‘O 
ants, go into your dwellings, lest Solomon and his hosts crush 
you unawares.” 


140 


THE PEOPLE OF SABA 


near! Arise and let us flee before we suffer 
blows and chains.”’ 

‘Yes,’ said the deaf man, “the noise is getting 
nearer. Come on, my friends!”’ 

The naked man said, ‘Alas, they will covet 
my skirt and cut it off, and I have no pro- 
tection.” 

All three left the City and came forth and in 
their flight entered a Village.’ 

In that Village they found a fat fowl, but not a 
mite of flesh on it; ‘twas pitiful— 

A dried-up dead fowl, and its bones had been 
pecked by crows till they were bare like 
threads. 

They ate thereof as a lion eats of his prey; each 
of them became surfeited, like an elephant, 
with eating it. 

All three ate thereof and grew mightily fat; 
they became like three very great and huge 
elephants, 

So that each young man, because of his fat- 
ness, was too big to be contained in the 
world. 

Notwithstanding such bigness and seven stout 
limbs,” they sprang forth through a chink in 
the door and departed. 


1 The world. 
* The seven members of the body: head, breast, belly,. 


arms and legs. 


I4I 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


The way of creaturely death is an invisible way, 
it comes not into sight; ‘tis a marvellous 
place of exit. 

Lo, the caravans follow one after another 
through this chink which is hidden from view 
in the door. 

If you look for that chink, you will not find it; 
it is extremely unapparent, though there are 
sO many processions through it. 


Explaining what is signified by the far-sighted 
blind man, the deaf man who is sharp of 
hearing, and the naked man with the long 
skirts. 


Know that Hope is the deaf man who has 
often heard of our dying but has never 
heard of his own death or regarded his own 
decease. 

The blind man is Greed: he sees the faults of 
others, hair by hair, and tells them from 
street to street, 

But his blind eyes do not perceive one 
mote of his own faults, albeit he is a fault- 
finder. 

The naked man is afraid that his skirt will be 
cut off: how shall anyone cut off the skirt of 
a naked man? 

He is the Worldling, destitute and terrified: he 


142 


THE PEOPLE OF SABA 


possesses nothing, yet he has dread of 
thieves. 

Bare he came and naked he goes, and all the 
while his heart is bleeding with anguish on 
account of the thief. 


143 


XLIV 
IBRAHIM SON OF ADHAM" 


RECLINING on a throne, that renowned King 
heard at night a noise of tramping and shrill 
cries from the roof. 

He heard loud footfalls on the roof of the 
palace and said to himself, “Who dares do 
this ?”’ 

He shouted from the window, “Who goes there? 
Methinks, ’tis no man, but a spirit.” 

A wondrous folk put their heads down from the 
roof, saying, “We are going round by night 
for the purpose of search.” 

“Eh, what are ye seeking?” “Camels,” said 
they. He cried, ‘Take heed! Whoever sought 
a camel on a roof?” 

They answered, “Why, then, art thou seeking 
God on the throne of empire?” 

That was all. None saw him again: he vanished 
like a spirit from the sight of man. 


1 Book IV, v. 829. Ibrahim, son of Adham, of Balkh, a 
celebrated ascetic and mystic, lived in the eighth century. 
His legend, modelled upon the story of Buddha, makes him 
a prince who abandoned his kingdom in order to devote 
himself to God. 


144 


IBRAHIM SON OF ADHAM 


Although he was in their presence, his real self 
remained hidden from them: how should 
people see aught but the beard and dervish- 
cloak ? 


145 L 


XLV 


THE MAN WHO PRAYED THAT 
HE MIGHT RECEIVE HIS 
LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT LABOUR’ 


IN the time of the prophet David a certain man, 
before sage and simple alike, 

Used always to utter this prayer: “O God, 
bestow on me riches without trouble! 

For Thou hast created me a lazybones, a re- 
ceiver of blows, a slow mover, a sluggard, 
And one cannot lay upon sore-backed luckless 

donkeys the load carried by horses and mules. 

I am lazy and asleep in this world of phenomenal 
being: I sleep in the shade of Thy bounty 
and munificence. 

Surely for them that are lazily sleeping in the 
shade Thou hast ordained a livelihood in 
another fashion. 

I crave the daily bread that comes without effort 
on my part, for I have no work except prayer.”’ 

Thus was he praying for a long while, all day 
until night and all night until morning. 

The people laughed at his words, at the folly 
of his hope, and at his importunity: 

? Book ITI, v. 1450. 
146 


THE MAN WHO PRAYED 


“Marvellous! What is he saying—this idiot? 
Or has somebody given him beng, which pro- 
duces dementia? 

The way to get daily bread is work and toil and 
fatigue; God has bestowed on everyone a 
handicraft and the power to seek his liveli- 
hood. 

At present the King and Ruler and Messenger 
of God is the prophet David, endowed with 
many accomplishments. 

Notwithstanding all his glory and majesty, 
forasmuch as the favours of the Friend have 
chosen him out, 

His livelihood does not come to him without 
his weaving coats of mail and labouring as a 
craftsman.’ 

Now a God-forsaken abandoned wretch like this, 
a low scoundrel and outcast from Heaven, 

A backslider of this sort desires, without trading, 
at once to fill his pockets with gain!” 

One would say to him derisively, ‘“Go and get 
it! Thy daily bread has arrived, the messen- 
ger has brought the good news’’ ; 

And another would laugh, saying, “Let us 
have a share in the gift,O headman of the 
village !”’ 

All this abuse and ridicule could not induce 
him to desist from his petitioning, 


1 See p. 120, note 2. 


147 


THE MAN WHO PRAYED THAT HE MIGHT 


So that he became celebrated in the town as 
one who looks for cheese in an empty wallet. 


One morning, as he was praying with moans 
and sighs, suddenly a cow ran into his house. 

She butted with her horns, broke the bolt, and 
jumped into the house; he sprang up and 
bound her legs. 

Then he cut her throat without delay, without 
consideration, and without mercy, 

And went to the butcher, in order that he might 
rip off her hide forthwith. 

The owner of the cow espied him and said, 
“Hey, why did you kill my cow? Fool! 
Brigand! Deal fairly with me.” 

He said, “God answered my ancient prayer. 
The cow was my portion of daily bread: I 
killed her. That is my reply.” 

The enraged owner seized him by the collar, 
struck him in the face with his fist several 
times, 

And led him to the prophet David, saying, 
“‘Come, you crazy fool and criminal! 

What are you saying? What is this prayer of 
yours? Don’t laugh at my head and beard 
and your own too, O rascal! 

Hey, gather round, O Muslims! For God’s 
sake, how should his prayer make my property 
belong to him?” 


148 


RECEIVE HIS LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT LABOUR 


The people said, “He speaks truth, and this 
prayer-monger seeks to act unjustly. 

How should such a prayer be the means of ac- 
quiring property? Give back the cow or go 
to prison!”’ 

Meanwhile the poor man was turning his face 
to Heaven and crying, “None knoweth my 
spiritual experience save Thee. 

Thou didst put the prayer into my heart, Thou 
didst raise a hundred hopes in my heart. 
Not idly was I uttering the prayer: like Joseph, 

I had dreamed dreams.”’ 


When the prophet David came forth, he asked, 
“What is all this about? What is the 
matter?” 

The plaintiff said, ‘“O prophet of God, give me 
justice. My cow strayed into his house. 

He killed my cow. Ask him why he killed my 
cow and bid him explain what happened.” 
David said to the poor man, “Speak! Why did 
you destroy the property of this honourable 

person ?”’ 

He replied, ““O David, for seven years I was 
engaged, day and night, in supplication and 
entreaty, 

Praying to God that He would give me a lawful 
means of livelihood without trouble on my 
part. 


149 


THE MAN WHO PRAYED THAT HE MIGHT 


After all this calling and crying, suddenly I saw 
a cow in my house. 

My eyes became dim, not on account of the 
food, but for joy that my supplication had 
been accepted. 

I killed her that I might give alms, in thankful- 
ness that He who knoweth things unseen 
had hearkened to my prayer.” 

David said, ‘Wipe out these words and set 
forth a legal plea in the dispute. 

Who gave you the cow? Did you buy or inherit 
her? Will you take the crop when you are not 
the farmer? 

You must pay this Muslim his money. Go, 
try to borrow it, and don’t seek to do 
wrong.” 

“O King,” said the poor man, “thou art telling 
me the same thing as my oppressors.” 

Then, prostrating himself, he cried, “O Thou 
who knowest the ardent faith within me, cast 
that flame into the heart of David; 

Put in his heart that which Thou hast secretly 
let fall into mine, O Benefactor!”’ 

He said this and began to weep and wail so that 
David was moved exceedingly. 

David said to the plaintiff, “‘Give me a respite 
to-day. I will go to a solitary place and com- 
mune with God.” 

He shut the door, and then went quickly to the 


150 


RECEIVE HIS LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT LABOUR 


prayer-niche and betook himself to the in- 
vocation that God answereth. 

God revealed all to him, and he saw who was 
the man deserving of punishment. 


Next day, when the litigants assembled and 
formed ranks before David, the plaintiff lifted 
up his voice in reproach. 

David said to him, “Be silent! Go, abandon 
your claim, acquit this true believer of re- 
sponsibility. 

Seeing that God has thrown a veil over you, 
depart in silence and render due thanks unto 
God for what He has concealed.” 

He cried, “‘Oh, woe is me! What wisdom is 
this, what justice? Wilt thou establish a new 
law in my case? 

Such wrong has never been done even to blind 
dogs; mountains and rocks are burst asunder 
by this iniquity.” 

Then said David, ““O contumacious man, give 
him on the spot all that you possess. 

Since ’twas not your fortune to be saved, little 
by little your wickedness has come to light. 
Begone! Your wife and children have now be- 

come his slaves. Say no more!”’ 

The plaintiff ran up and down in a frenzy, 
dashing stones against his breast with both 
hands, 


151 


THE MAN WHO PRAYED THAT HE MIGHT 


While the people too began to blame David, for 
they were ignorant of the hidden circum- 
stances. 

The currish mob, which slays the oppressed 
and worships the oppressor, sprang forth 
from ambush and rushed towards David, 

Crying, ‘“‘O chosen prophet, this is unworthy 
of thee, ‘tis manifest injustice; thou hast 
abased an innocent man for naught.” 

He said, “My friends, the time is come for his 
hidden secret to be displayed. 

Arise, all of you, let us set out, that we may 
become acquainted with his mystery. 

In such and such a plain there is a huge tree, 
its boughs thick and numerous and curved. 
Its tent and tent-pegs are very firm; from its 
roots the smell of blood is coming to me. 
Murder was done at the foot of that goodly 
tree: this ill-fated man killed his master. 
The crime, which God’s mercy concealed till 
now, has at last been brought to light through 

the ingratitude of this scoundrel, 

Who never once looked upon his master’s family, 
not even at Nawriz’ and other seasons of 
festival, 

And never searched after the destitute children 
to relieve their want, or bethought him of the 
obligations he had received, 

* The Persian New Year’s Day. 
152 


RECEIVE HIS LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT LABOUR 


And so proceeded, till for the sake of a cow this 
accursed wretch is now felling his master’s 
son to the earth. 

He himself has lifted the veil from his crime; 
else God would have kept it hidden. 

Wrong is covered up in the depths of the heart: 
the wrong-doer exposes it to men, 

Saying, ‘Behold me! I have horns! Behold the 
cow of Hell’ in full view’! ” 


When they arrived at the tree, David said, “Tie 
his hands fast behind him, 

That I may bring his sin to light and plant the 
banner of justice on the field. 

O dog,”’ said he, “‘you killed this man’s father. 
You were a slave; by murder you became a 
lord. 

You killed your master and seized his property: 
God hath made it manifest. 

Your wife was his handmaid: she has acted 
unjustly towards her master. 

The children she bore to him, male and female 
—all of them from beginning to end are the 
property of the master’s heir. 

You are a slave: your goods are his property. 
You have demanded the Law: take the Law 
and go: ’tis well. 


1 The fleshly soul, as is explained in the concluding verses 
of the Story. 


153 


THE MAN WHO PRAYED THAT HE MIGHT 


You killed your master miserably, whilst he 
was crying for mercy on this very spot, 

And hastily hid the knife under the soil because 
of the terrible apparition which you beheld. 

On the knife, too, the name of this hound is 
written who betrayed and murdered his 
master. 

His head together with the knife is beneath! 
Dig ye back the soil, thus!” 

Even so they did, and when they cleft the earth 
they found there the knife and the skull. 

A tumult of lamentation went up from the 
people: everyone severed the girdle of un- 
belief.” 

Then David said to him, “Come, O seeker of 
justice, and with that black face of yours re- 
ceive the justice due to you!” 

He ordered him to be killed in retaliation with 
the same knife: how should cunning deliver 
him from the knowledge of God? 


Kill thy fleshly soul and make the world spiritu- 
ally alive. She hath killed her master: make 
her thy slave. 

The slayer of the cow is thy rational spirit: go, 
be not offended with the spirit that kills the 
flesh. 


1 Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians wore a girdle 
(zunndr) to distinguish them from the Faithful. 


154 


RECEIVE HIS LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT LABOUR 


The spirit is a captive, and craves of God daily 
bread won without toil, and bounty spread 
before it on a table. 

Upon what does its daily bread depend? Upon 
its killing the cow, which is the origin of all 
evil. 


155 


XLVI 


THE GHUZZ RAIDERS AND THE TWO 
NOTABLES’ 


THE murderous Ghuzz Turcomans raided a 
village. They found two notables and were 
about to put one of them to death. 

When they had tied his hands, he said, “O 
princes and high pillars of the empire, 

For what reason do ye seek to slay me? Where- 
fore, pray, are ye thirsting after my blood? 
What is the sense, what is the object, in killing 

me, when I am so poor and destitute ?”’ 

One of the Ghuzz replied, “To strike awe into 
this friend of yours, so that he may produce 
his gold.” 

“Why,” said the man, “he is poorer than I.” 
“So he says,” replied the Ghuzz, “‘but he 
has done it on purpose. He is rich.” 

“Since it is a matter of opinion,” said the man, 
“he and I are in the same case: the probabili- 
ties are equal. 

Kill him first, O princes, in order that I may 
be terrified and point out the way to the 
gold.” 

* Book II, v. 3046. 
156 


XLVII 
HAROT AND MARUT" 


LISTEN to the tale of Harit and Marit, O thou 
to whose face we are devoted slaves.” 

Hartt and Marit were intoxicated with the 
spectacle of God and the marvel of His 
gradual temptation of them. 

Such intoxication arises from His temptation: 
you may judge, then, what intoxications are 
wrought by the ascension to God? 

If the bait in His snare produces intoxication 
like this, what delights will the table of His 
bounty reveal! 

They were drunken and freed from the noose: 
they were uttering rapturous cries in the 
fashion of lovers; 

But in their road there was an ambush and trial: 


? Book III, v. 800. Hariit and Marit were two angels, who 
looked with contempt on the sinful state of men and received 
permission to visit the earth, though God warned them of the 
temptations to which they would be exposed. On coming 
down to the earth, they fell in love with a beautiful woman 
—Venus, according to some accounts—and seduced her. 
Given the choice of punishment in this world or the next, 
they preferred the former and were imprisoned in a pit at 


Babylon. 
* Husdmu’ddin, to whom the Mathnawi is dedicated. 


157 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


its mighty wind would sweep away moun- 
tains like a straw. 

The Divine trial was driving them headlong; 
but how should one who is drunken be con- 
scious of these things? 

To him pit and open field are one, to him dun- 
geon and pit are a pleasant path to tread. 
The mountain-goat runs up the high mountain 

to feed in safety. 

While browsing, suddenly he sees another trick 
played by the ordinance of Heaven. 

He casts his gaze upon another mountain, and 
there he espies a she-goat. 

Straightway his eyes are darkened: he leaps 
madly from this mountain to that. 

To him it seems as easy as to run round the 
sink in the court of a house. 

Those thousands of yards are made to appear to 
him as two, in order that from mad infatua- 
tion the impulse to leap may come to him. 

As soon as he leaps, he falls midway between 
the two pitiless mountains. 

He had fled to the mountain to escape from the 
hunters: his very refuge shed his blood. 


Harit and Marit, being intoxicated with pride, 
said, ““Ah, we would rain upon the earth, like 
clouds; 

We would spread in this place of injustice a 


158 


HARUT AND MARUT 
carpet of justice and equity and devotion 
and faithfulness.” 

So they said; and the Divine Decree was say- 
ing to them, ‘“‘Stop! Before your feet is many 
an unseen pitfall.” 

The Decree was saying this, but their ears were 
muffled in the veil of their hotheadedness. 
All eyes and ears are shut, except in them that 

have escaped from themselves. 

Who but Grace shall open the eyes? Who but 
Love shall allay the Wrath? 


159 


XLVITI 


THE GRAMMARIAN AND THE 
BOATMAN’ 


A SELF-CONCEITED grammarian embarked in a 
boat. Turning to the boatman, he asked, 
“Have you ever studied grammar?” “‘No,”’ he 
replied. “Then,” said the grammarian, “half 
your life has been lost.” 

The boatman, heart-broken with grief, refrained 
from answering him at the time. 

The wind cast the boat into a whirlpool. The 
boatman shouted to the grammarian, 

‘Tell me, can you swim?” “‘No,” said he, “O 
fair-spoken, well-favoured man.”’ 

“‘O grammarian,” he cried, “your whole life 
is lost, for the boat is sinking in this whirl- 
pool.” 


Know that here mahw(self-naughting) is needed, 
not nahw (grammar). If you are mahw (dead 
to self), you may plunge into the sea without 
peril. 

The sea bears up one who is dead; but if 


? Book I, v. 2835 
160 


THE GRAMMARIAN AND THE BOATMAN 


he be living, how shall he escape from the 
sea? 

When you have died to the fleshly nature, the 
sea of divine consciousness will raise you 
aloft. 


161 M 


XLIX 


THE GARDENER AND THE THREE 
FRIENDS’ 


A GARDENER found in his orchard three men 
who looked like thieves, 

A Jurist and a Sharif* and a Sifi: each one an 
impudent, knavish, perfidious rogue. 

He said, “I have a hundred arguments against 
these fellows, but they are united, and union 
is strength. 

I cannot cope singly with the three, so first I 
will separate them,.and when each is alone I 
will tear out his moustache.” 

He employed a ruse to get the Sifi away and 
poison the minds of his friends against him. 

‘Go to the house,”’ said he, “‘and fetch a rug 
for your comrades.”’ 

Then he said to the two friends in private, 
“Thou art a Jurist, and thy friend is a re- 
nowned Sharif. 

"Tis according to thy legal decision that we eat 
our bread, ’tis by the wings of thy knowledge 
that we fly; 


? Book II, v. 2167. 
? A descendant of the Prophet. 


162 


THE GARDENER AND THE THREE FRIENDS 


And thy friend is our prince and sovereign: he 
is a Sayyid of the Prophet’s House. 

Who is this gluttonous vile Sifi that he should 
consort with noblemen like you? 

When he comes back, beat him off and take 
possession of my orchard for a week. 

My orchard? Nay, my life. Ye are dear to me 
as the apple of my right eye.” 

He tempted and beguiled them. Ah, one must 
not patiently submit to losing one’s friend. 
When they had driven the Sifi away, the enemy 

went after him with a stout cudgel. 

“O dog,’ he cried, “is it Sufism that of a sudden 
you come into my orchard in spite of me? 
Has Junayd" or Bayazid* directed you to behave 
so? From what Shaykh did you receive this 

instruction ?”’ 

Raising his cudgel, he belaboured the helpless 
Sifi, cracked his head and half killed him. 
‘““My score is paid,” said the Sufi, “but have a 

care for yourselves, O comrades! 
Ye treated me as a foe. Look out! I am not 
more unfriendly than this scoundrel. 

The cup which I have drunk ye must drink, and 
such a draught is what every cad deserves.” 
Having finished with the Sufi, the Gardener 
devised a pretext of the same kind as before. 
1 Junayd of Baghdad, an eminent Safi, died in g11 A.D. 

2 See p. 100, note I. 


163 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


“*My dear Sharif,” said he, “I have baked some 
scones for breakfast. 

Will you go to the house and bid Qaymaz bring 
them to us along with the goose?” 

Then, turning to the other, ‘‘Doctor,”’ said he, 
“tis manifest and sure that thou art skilled 
in the law; 

But thy friend a Sharif! His claim is absurd. 
Who knows who committed adultery with 
his mother? 

He has tacked himself on to ‘Ali and the Pro- 
phet, and in the world there are plenty of 
fools to believe him.”’ 

He spoke plausibly, and the Jurist hearkened 
to him. Then that insolent bully went after 
the Sharif. 

“You ass!” he cried, “who invited you into this 
orchard? Is robbery your inheritance from 
the Prophet? 

The lion’scub resembles the lion : in what respect 
do you resemble the Prophet? Tell me that!”’ 

The Sharif was devastated by the blows of that 
rufhan. He said to the Jurist, ‘I have got out 
of the water. 

Now you are left alone. Stand fast! Be like a 
drum and take your beating! 

If I am no Sharif and unworthy of your friend- 
ship, at any rate I am no worse for you than 
such a ruffan as this.” 


164 


THE GARDENER AND THE THREE FRIENDS 


The Gardener came up to the Jurist, saying, 
“What sort of jurist are you? The veriest 
fool would be ashamed of you. 

Is it your legal opinion, O convicted thief, that 
you may come into my orchard without ask- 
ing leave? 

Have you read such a licence in the Wasit, or 1s 
this question thus decided in the Muhit?” 
“You are right,” he replied; ‘“‘give me a drub- 
bing! This is the fit punishment for one who 

deserts his friends.”’ 


165 


L 


THE MONK IN SEARCH OF 
A MAN’ 


A MONK was seen in the daytime going round 
the bazaar with a lighted candle, his heart 
filled with love and rapture. 

Some busybody said to him, ‘‘Hallo, what are 
you seeking in every shop? 

What is it you are in search of, going round 
with a candle in the bright sunshine? What 
is the joke?”’ 

He replied, “I am searching everywhere for a 
man who is made living by the life of the 
spirit. 

Is there a man in existence?”’ “‘Why,”’ said the 
other, “‘this bazaar is full of men, O noble 
sage.” 

The monk said, ‘‘I want one who is a man in 
the way of two passions—anger and lust. 

Where is he who proves himself a man in the 


1 Book V, v. 2887. Diogenes Laertius in his Lives of the 
Philosophers relates this Story of Diogenes the Cynic: 
Avyvov pel” Hyépav arras Tepiner Néywv © avOpwrrov 
tnr@.” Phaedrus tells it of Aesop. 


166 


THE MONK IN SEARCH OF A MAN 


hour of anger or lust? In quest of such a man 
I am roaming from street to street. 

Where in the world shall I find one who is a 
man on these two occasions, that I may 
sacrifice my life for him to-day ?”’ 


167 


LI 
THE ECSTASY OF BAYAZID* 


TuatT venerable dervish, Bayazid, came to his 
disciples and said, “‘Lo, I am God.” 

That master of mystic knowledge exclaimed 
rapturously, ‘Hark, there is no god but I, so 
worship me.” 

When the ecstasy had passed, they said to him 
at dawn, “Thou saidest such and such, and 
it is blasphemous.” 

He replied, “This time, if I make a scandal, 
come on at once and plunge your knives into 
me. 

God is incorporeal, and I am in the body. Ye 
must kill me if I say a thing like that.” 

Again he. became intoxicated by the potent 
flagon: these injunctions vanished from his 
mind. 

The dessert appeared: his reason became dis- 
traught. The dawn broke: his candle be- 
came useless. 

Reason is like the prefect: when the Sultan 
arrives, the helpless prefect creeps into a 
corner. 

1 Book IV, v. 2102. 


168 


THE ECSTASY OF BAYAZID 


Reason is God’s shadow: God is the Sun. How 
can the shadow resist His sun? 

When a man is possessed by a spirit, the attri- 
butes of humanity disappear from him. 

Whatsoever he says is really uttered by the 
spirit: the speaker on this side is controlled 
by one belonging to the other side. 

A spirit hath such influence and rule: how much 
more powerful must be the Creator of that 
spirit! 

If a pot-valiant fellow shed the blood of a 
fierce lion, you will say that the wine did it, 
not he; 

And if he fashion words of pure gold, you will 
say that the wine has spoken them. 

Wine can rouse such transports: hath not the 
Light of God that virtue and potency 

To empty you entirely of self, so that you should 
be laid low and He should make the Word 
lofty within you? 

Though the Qur’dn is from the lips of the 
Prophet—if anyone says God did not speak 
it, he is an infidel. 


When the Huma’ of selflessness took wing and 
soared, Bayazid began to repeat those ecs- 
tatic words. 

The flood of bewilderment swept away his 
1 The lammergeier or bearded griffon. 


169 N 


TALES OF MYSTIC MEANING 


reason: he spoke more strongly than he had 
spoken at first, 

Saying, ‘“Within my mantle there is naught but 
God: how long wilt thou seek Him on the 
earth or in heaven?” 

The disciples, frenzied with horror, dashed 
their knives at his holy body. 

Like the fanatics of Girdakih,’ they were ruth- 
lessly stabbing their spiritual Director. 

Everyone who plunged a dagger in the Shaykh 
made a gash in his own body. 

There was:no mark of a wound on the body of 
the Master, while the disciples were drowned 
in blood. 

Whoever aimed a blow at his throat saw his 
own throat cut and perished miserably; 
And whoever struck at his breast, his own 
breast was riven, and he became dead for 

ever; 

And he that was acquainted with that spiritual 
emperor of high fortune and had not the 
heart to strike a heavy blow, 

Half-knowledge tied his hand, so that he saved 
his life and only wounded himself. 

When day dawned, the disciples were thinned: 
wails of lamentation arose from their house. 

Thousands of men and women came to Bayazid, 
1 A stronghold of the terrible sect generally known as the 

Assassins. 

170 


THE ECSTASY OF BAYAZID 


saying, ““O thou in whose single shirt the 
two worlds are contained, 

If this body of thine were human, it would have 
been destroyed, like a human body, by the 
daggers.” 


O you who stab the selfless ones with the sword, 
you are stabbing yourself. Beware! 

For the selfless one has passed away in God 
and is safe: he is dwelling in safety for ever. 

His form has passed away, and he has become 
a mirror: naught is there but the image of 
another face. 

If you spit at it, you spit at your own face; and 
if you strike at the mirror, you strike at your- 
self; 

And if you see an ugly face in the mirror, ’tis 
you; and if you see Jesus and Mary, ’tis you. 

He is neither this nor that: he is pure and trans- 
parent, he has placed your image before you. 


Close thy lips, O my soul: though eloquence is 
at thy command, do not breathe a word— 
and God best knoweth the right way. 





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