Basatin al-uns 69

English (machine translation) 69

Language: English

69.1

O you who seek high rank through evil treachery, / how can you hunt the Simurgh with a womb?
The traitor never attains his hopes in triumph, / nor does the ungrateful denier of favors succeed in his desire.

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And like Solomon, he set foot upon the enduring throne of the kingdom, which for years had been cast to the wind and beyond the reach of his control;
and in the banquet of felicity, having drained to the brim the delightful goblet of gladness, he embraced with fidelity the bride
of fortune, who for a time had drawn the veil of opposition over her face. And he opened the doors of
bounty to the people of the world in gratitude for this tremendous blessing, so that it was verified to all that ingratitude
for blessings has an unpraiseworthy end, and the treacherous devourer of the unlawful is ever accompanied by an ill-omened destiny:

69.9

If you turn against your benefactor, / even if you were the celestial sphere, you shall be overthrown.
Betraying the debt of bread and salt / breaks the neck of the fierce lion.
Whoever sows good reaps that which is not evil, / and the sower of evil finds it overturned upon the sower.
When the boon companion finished the tale, the king smiled. The boon companion asked the king the reason for his smile.
The king said: “From this delightful tale with its elaborate phrasing, cheerfulness has come over my mind, the army of sorrow
has turned to flight, and I have complete confidence in your clarity of mind and your foresight; the effects of these have continually been witnessed in your words
and deeds, and their outcomes in ordering difficult matters have become certain truth. But tell me: what relevance does
this tale have to the present circumstance?” The boon companion remained silent for a moment. When he saw that the excuse of feigned ignorance had little room
and its acceptance was leagues away, he said: “The relevance of this is not hidden from the luminous royal conscience, from whose light the sun
must seek illumination. The king pondered and reflected for a while in order to find the thread of this
affair and clarify the reality of this situation. After a moment, he turned to the boon companion and said:

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“By the promptings of physiognomy and the dictates of analogy, it appears that you harbor a suspicion of rebellion concerning this minister and the army commander,
and an inkling of their straying from the highway of obedience and the path of sincerity is conceived; for it is possible that
they have conquered the city of Sarandīp, brought under their control treasuries, wealth, jewels, elephants, and other rarities of land and
sea that have accumulated there for several thousand years and have never been dispersed by the hand of any king,
and by virtue of ‘Indeed, man transgresses when he sees himself self-sufficient,’ the demon of sedition and mischief
has made a dwelling and abode in their hearts, the wind of arrogance and pride has found a way into their brains, and they have
withdrawn their heads from the halter of obedience and their feet from the circle of servitude, and raised the banner of abandonment, opposition, and rebellion, whose inscription bears the verse:

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‘The penalty for those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive upon earth to cause corruption is only that they be killed or crucified,’
pitched the tent of obedience to passion and desire in the wilderness of rebellion and defiance, and, having acquired the accoutrements and
splendor of kingship, become inflated with pride like the lion on a royal banner.” The boon companion said: “This very thought has settled in my heart,
and this very reflection has taken hold of my mind. It may be that this inference has no foundation, and this suspicion
may not lead to certainty; yet it is incumbent upon sincere servants and well-wishers of the kingdom not to conceal by any means whatever
benefit or harm can be conceived regarding the interests of the realm, so that they may properly free themselves from the obligation of their debts of gratitude.”
The king said: “The likeness of such events can be imagined in the mirror of possibility, and
by the requirement of far-sighted intellect cannot be denied in every respect; but that minister and army commander are distinguished and
peerless among their peers and equals in the perfection of wisdom, correctness of judgment, abundance of sincerity, wealth of experience, and foresight;
and never has the dust of such an accusation settled upon the skirt of their days, nor has anything been observed from them
save the display of all kinds of commendable services and the demonstration of diverse kinds of distinguished duties of servitude. And every time
the gold of their fidelity has been weighed on the balance of testing and rubbed on the touchstone of discrimination, from the other courtiers, deficiency
and, by weight and fineness, has proved superior, complete, preponderant, and surpassing, this sort of treachery appears remote and strange from them, and
in this matter it is also not fitting to make a definitive judgment. 'However, the walls have ears.' It is incumbent upon you not to allow the occurrence of this affair
to pass from the hiding place of your heart even to the door of your mouth, and, like musk in the pod and like a pearl
in the oyster shell, and fire in the flint, and the kernel in the almond, to keep it hidden and concealed; and just as you have constantly,
in guarding and concealing our secrets, brought the jewel of your nobility and the perfection of your intellect to the surface,
this time as well you must deem adherence to that same praiseworthy conduct and pleasing character necessary; for the disclosure of this matter will not be devoid
of inciting aversion and stirring up the dust of apprehension." The sovereign's deliberation and conversation with the boon-companion had reached this point
when a chamberlain entered hastily through the door and announced that the vizier, coming from Sarandīp in the garb of ascetics,
had entered upon the pilgrim-state of [visiting] the presence and had arrived at the gate. The sovereign became exceedingly anxious and distracted in mind, and in
this state remained perturbed and astonished, and said to the boon-companion: "The vizier is a wise man of sound counsel and an army commander
who marshals the host:

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He joined to sound deliberation the virtue of courage; / and none is honored except the brave man who exercises sound deliberation.
And never has his speech or deed been devoid of wisdom, empty of benefit, or far from a purpose;
and his arriving in this garb can, God willing, contain good and require improvement."

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The boon-companion said: "To leave the vizier outside in this unaccustomed attire seems far from prudence, for
most creatures look only to the external appearance of conditions, and if they witness something contrary to custom, in accordance with their own shallow
judgment they stir up corrupt conjectures, so that by this cause false rumors are spread in all quarters and directions,
and often it becomes the cause of the emergence of strife and the occurrence of calamities. But the class who are characterized by a sound method, firm deliberation,
perfect prudence, and comprehensive cunning, and whose fiery intellect, through correct deductions, makes known and reveals
the events and reports of tomorrow today, and in the foundations of whose reasoning no flaw finds a way in any manner,
are, like the moon and the sun, few in number and count; and corruption and the ruin of affairs can no more be expected from that class than the right arrangement of
interests can be expected from the common populace. Therefore, in every state, sovereigns must establish foundations for affairs
that encompass the order of the conditions of the common people, whose abundance—like the scarcity of the elite—is established and known by the decree of observation."
The sovereign ordered the vizier to be summoned. When he saw him, observing the side of respect and
honor toward him, he asked about the manner of discharging the affairs. The vizier said:

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"Rejoice in what you desire, for your fortune is obedient / and time is submissive to your command and humble.
The world, from the splendor and fortune of the commander of the world, / resembles the expanse of Iram and the garden of Paradise.
To whichever side you look, there is the display of victory; / to whichever side you lend an ear, there are tidings of security.
By the effect of the sovereign's ever-increasing prosperity and favorable fortune, the crescent-tipped finial of the victory-portending banners rubs its head
against the sky, and the sun-dagger of the army, numerous as the wandering planets, opens a new expanse and realm every day. At times,
from the hooves of steeds of swift wind, it raises dust from the encircling ocean, and at times from the bodies of enemies a watery sea of blood
it causes to flow upon the soil of the battlefield. The boundless ocean, from the heat of the sun of the water-like swords, like
the lips of adversaries, has become dry; and the surface of the revolving heaven, from the moisture of the wave of blood, has become wet like the eyes of the vile. And
from the day of our departure to this day, the kingdoms of Rūm and China and India, and great cities, and firm fortresses and strongholds

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have come under possession, and have been subdued and acquired; the friends of the realm, like the cloud, have seized the skirt of the highest sphere,
and the enemies of the kingdom, like drops of rain, are hidden beneath the dust of annihilation; the various flowers of victories
smile from the radiant thorn-field of the champions of vast pomp, and the nightingale of victory sings in the meadow of the coats of mail of the rank-breaking warriors of
perfect awe. And after the opening of the gates of great victories, the sea-surging army and thunder-roaring host encamped
on the shore of the sea that surrounds the kingdom of Sarandīp. And by virtue of what is written in the reliable books
of the sages—which are the mine of useful teachings and the treasury of counsels, and which past sultans and former rulers, in laying
the foundations of the realm and strengthening the pillars of sovereignty, made their guide and leader, and deemed the following of its ordinances
among obligatory duties, and whose effects in elevating the degrees of sovereignty, expanding the territories of the kingdom,
governing the realms, and uprooting and extirpating enemies of vast pomp and abundant equipment have been manifested with all facility, swiftness,
and goodness—a sovereign must be adorned and embellished with the resolution of sound judgment, an illuminated conscience,
the virtue of enemy-[crushing] bravery, and army-shattering courage; and as long as attracting benefits
and repelling harms is made easy by the help of knot-resolving judgment, he should not draw the blood-drinking sword from the scabbard; and as long as the desire
of hearts, in whole or in part, is set right by the aid of the tongue's blade, he should not put the blade's tongue to work, so that the renown of his perfect
sagacity and excess of acumen may, like a tongue, fall into mouths, and the tongues of the people of the world may become eloquent in the mouth with the mention of his fine discernment,
and so that the servants of abundant sincere devotion may also make this principle their guide and leader in discharging the important affairs of state,
and conduct the affairs of sovereignty in this very manner; and the masters of experience have ever
placed sound judgment before the sword and accounted excellence of deliberation higher in rank than abundance of bravery:
"Deliberation comes before the bravery of the brave; / it is the first, and that is the second quality.
When the two are united in a resolute soul, / it attains every station of high renown."
Upon this basis, the agreement so occurred that at first the path of sending messages was pursued, and envoys of eloquent
discourse and ambassadors of sound deliberation were sent to the king of Sarandīp, so that if, before accepting warfare and
combat, he should draw the collar of servitude around his neck, remove the cap of recalcitrance, rebelliousness, and pride from his head, and like
an arrow bind the belt of obedience about his waist, and sheathe the dagger of opposition and malice, then that is the desired aim; and if not, then from that

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[he must be] brought out from that mountain-like fortress by the blow of the lustrous sword just as fire is brought out from stone, and by the impact of the mountain-crushing mace,
the gem of his existence will be shattered like glass upon stone."

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The king of Sarandīp received the envoys with utmost honor and respect, and to provide an answer he requested an opportunity and delay of a few days,
and sent the envoys back. An inquiry was made of the envoys regarding the news of that city, and an investigation into
the temperament of the inhabitants of that land, the nature of army arrangements, and the management of state affairs by the king of Sarandīp.
They reported what they had witnessed, along with another piece of news that is extremely rare and exceedingly wondrous.
they did.

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The king asked: "What is it?" The minister said: "In the house of the king of Sarandīp there is a daughter whom
he acquired at the time of the subjection of the king of China, who in beauty is a plague to the soul and in delicacy an intoxication to the world.
Her night-colored, trailing tresses give aid in length to the night of Resurrection; her soul-reviving face in the perfection of
beauty exacts compensation from the full moon of the fourteenth night; the ruby rose gains color from envy of her spring-like cheek;
the hundred-petaled rose turns yellow like jasmine from shame before the freshness of her cheek, under her signet-ring.

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"In his face is an intercessor that effaces its misdeeds from hearts, / comely wherever he is present."
All is freshness and beauty, coquetry and grace;

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the meadow learned assembly-adorning from her cheek.

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The languid narcissus is a transcript of her languishing eye; the divine ruby is the blood-turned heart of her sugar-showering lip; the vault of her two
eyebrows, like the new moon, has become peerless in the world; the rank of her eyelashes has become the plunderer of the faith and heart of the people of the world;
the delicacy of her lovely body is to such a degree that from the harm of people's gaze it puts on a garment of blood like the damask rose;
the clarity of the mirror of her light-spreading cheek is to such an extent that if she looks upon the form of her own reflection in a mirror,
its reflection appears luminous and radiant in the mirror of the reflection of her cheek like a face in a mirror. Every time the full moon of the fourteenth night,
with so much splendor and brilliance, enters into rivalry and confrontation with the sun of her cheek, from envy and

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[...]

71.8

shame it melts away within itself like a candle; and every day that the world-illuminating sun looks keenly upon her radiant brow,
from an excess of jealousy and shame it sinks into the earth with a face yellow like saffron. Her slender
waist has imputed the accusation of thickness to the shadow of a hair; when she casts a shadow from the hyacinth upon the petal of the rose,
she tears into a thousand rents, like a rose, the robe of patience of the veiled women behind the curtain of seclusion, and renders them senseless and
restless like one struck by a phantom; and if she opens the pistachio of her lip in sugar-shedding laughter, she closes the narrow mouth of sugar like an unopened
bud.

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"We have not seen, nor has there been imagined, in him lips of finer coral."
I wished to describe the beauty of her form, but / the memory of her took me out of myself and speech did not remain in the mouth.
In the horoscope of her ascendant, the Almagest-knowing sages and Euclid-unraveling geometricians, after investigating the influences of
the celestial cycles and the requirements of the motion of the planets of heaven, have written thus: that in the garden of hope of whomever this fresh-faced
one smiles, into the casket of the house of whomever this precious pearl settles, the fruit of purpose—the attainment of which was far beyond
the reach of far-sighted thought—shall be placed in the hand of his intent, and every gem of desire whose acquisition
is bound to the endurance of hardships and the witnessing of perils shall be laid in his skirt in the easiest of manners. And like Alexander he shall become
ruler and conqueror over the expanses of sea and land and in the realms of the seven climes; and Solomon-like, human and jinn will depict
from heart and soul the mark of obedience and submission to him like an engraving upon their world-viewing eye; and wild beasts,
game, livestock, and vermin shall not withdraw their heads from the halter of his obedience nor their feet from the circle of his compliance. The dwellers of the dry land
shall apply the dust of his feet to their eyes like kohl, and the inhabitants of the water, out of dread of his lustrous sword, like the lotus
shall cast their heads upon the face of the water. Verse:

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"When she sees him from afar, she dismounts, / and if she does not do so, her head dismounts."
And the water of the brook of his youth shall always be protected and secure from the taint of the turbidity of old age; the bough of
his youth shall not be broken or stripped of fruit and foliage by the onslaught of the autumn of old age; the arrow of his stature shall not become bow-like by taking on the attribute of
curvature; his cypress-like height shall remain clothed, like the crown of the head, in the robe of rectitude and, like it, continuously
flourishing; in the manner of the king of the planets, he shall conquer the east and west of the world with the sun of his sword; and through victory and
triumph he shall rise above crown-bearers seated on sky-like thrones; and across the mind of whomever passes a thought contrary to the execution of
his command, without the mediation of a sword-strike his head shall advance forward and be severed; and into the head of whichever leader the wind of
rebellion against his firm command finds a way, he shall be humbled in the dust along the path, and become trampled and headless before the people of the world.

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[...]

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The hand of destiny shall cast the aquatic enemy of his realm into the underworld like water, and plunge the rebellious envier of his court
under the earth like the root of a tree; and whoever reaches that fountain of life shall, like Khiḍr, attain the felicity of
eternal life. I said to the commander of the army: 'The benefits of sound judgment and its precedence over bravery and virility, by virtue of
the premises that I have set forth to you, are proven and sound, and no intelligent person retains any doubt or room for
suspicion regarding it. If through the guidance of an auspicious judgment and the application of sound planning such an unparalleled blessing and magnificent gift
is obtained, how wonderful the fortune and prosperity that will appear! Relaying this report and sending this glad tidings to
the royal presence is among the most pressing matters and total obligations, yet divulging it to anyone else is not permissible:

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It is not fitting to make anyone a confidant of secrets, / lest suddenly an enemy lie in ambush.
If you need a companion to speak of it, / consider none more intimate than your own heart.'
For it is written in the books of the ancient sages: 'Whatever task confronts an intelligent, prudent, and
far-sighted man of clear intellect, and his resolution is restricted to completing it and his mind is occupied with attending to it,
must, to the extent of human capability and the limit of human endurance, bring to manifestation the signs of beautiful patience in concealing it,

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"When you resolve upon a momentous matter, conceal it that you may succeed;
For the benefit of the tyrannical enemy lies in your matter becoming known."
and must not disclose it except to someone who is worthy of intimacy and fit for consultation, and concerning whom it has been established and verified by rational proofs and arguments
that disclosing that secret to him will bring about the opening of the door to the objective and necessitate blocking the path of distraction for
the mind and the heart's contemplation; because this kind of situation can under no circumstance be free of two states:
this important affair that has arisen, and that need which has presented itself—is its final outcome destined to be completed
or not? If the pen of destiny on the tablets of pre-eternity, according to the decree "The pen has dried regarding what is to be,"
has so proceeded that the reins of that pen's design cannot be attained, and its tight knot cannot be undone by the subtle ruses of problem-solving intellect,
at least one remains safe from the taunt and malicious joy of enemies, and from the sorrow of heart that brings tidings to the ear of the soul of the heat of the fire of Hell and
the severity of painful torment, and the brand of shame and humiliation will not settle upon the forehead of
one's existence. And if, through the assistance of the auspicious conjunctions of the azure sphere and the support of heavenly fortune and ever-increasing luck,
its attainment might be facilitated, [it may happen] that when the ill-wishing enemy and the idle envier obtain awareness and knowledge of that

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[...]

71.60

circumstance, driven by an impure interior, absolute envy, abundant malevolence, and extreme jealousy, they will exert an exhaustive effort to annul it; and on this account, the attainment of the desire and the reaching of the goal will remain for several days behind
the veil of suspension and the curtain of delay; and even if it does reach completion, it will not be free and devoid of
some manner of languor and impairment. And they have also said, verse:
was not idle, and it has also been said, poetry:

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A word, so long as you have not spoken it, you are able to speak it, / but once spoken, it cannot be hidden again.
The general said: 'To announce this news, let one of us resolve firmly to set out toward the imperial presence.'
After consensus and consultation, the prudent course appeared to be that I should convey this glad tiding to the august ear of the king, the sovereign of the realm,
and that I should be specially designated to deliver this soul-nourishing good news. Therefore,
on a certain day, 'with companions like the teeth of a comb in equality,' I embarked upon a ship:

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Upon a swift vessel of cedar wood, which the master of the adze supported with joints and ribs,
Coated with pitch, unstripped of bark, as though it were smeared with a liquid from the hoarded provisions of life,
It cares not for haste if calamity befalls it, nor is it moved by dyeing or fertility.
That bird which flies without the help of primary or secondary flight feathers, and that runner which, without the assistance of a foot, runs swiftly on the path like an arrow,
and a steed which, across the wide expanses of water, gallops only on its chest; fish-like, moving on the crest of the waves like a serpent upon the earth only on its belly;
a wondrous bow which itself travels like a swift-flying arrow, yet its arrow, like a bow, remains ever in its place; a marvelous crescent which, even if a thousand years pass over it,
never becomes a full moon; carrying various souls yet perpetually barren; a traveler that is itself always
journeying while its companion remains still; a waterfowl which, when it drinks its fill of water, drowns in the whirlpool of annihilation; a fish
whose survival happens more often on dry land; bound itself, yet delivering others from the soul-destroying tempest;
like the lovelorn, neither on the earth nor in heaven; and, in the manner of the masters of saintly miracles, moving upon
the surface of flowing water; a mountain set in motion by the blowing of the winds before the rising of the Resurrection; a cloud which,
despite boundless water, has never rained a drop upon any land; speeding on by night and day; and
in order to deliver news of that wild-rose-bodied bride to the august ear of the king of sea and land, it gave that ship
not a moment's rest or quiet, driving it so swiftly and violently that, in speed, it left the fast-paced wind two stages behind,
and by the force of its motion it brought forth flames of fire from the substance of the water. Over several days
and nights, with the manifestation of the meaning of 'and they sailed with them with a goodly wind,' the hearts of the companions took an abundant share of joy and gladness;
making 'Do you not see that the ships sail in the sea by the favor of God?' the daily chant of the soul; and in gazing upon

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[...]

71.87

'And His are the ships elevated in the sea like mountains,' seeing the signs of the exalted divine power manifest; and at times with the subtleties
of the dawn-songs of Abū Firās and the wine-poems of Abū Nuwās bringing delight to the souls, while at other times listening to rare evening tales
and wondrous stories of corporeal forms bestowed solace and calm. Poetry:
and the wondrous tales gave solace and tranquility to [their] bodies, verse:

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"Indeed the afflictions and occurrences are asleep, time is in neglect, and the gathering is assembled."
The author says:

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I had been sitting with a few companions, / whose affection was bound up with the soul,
Having launched two ships without heed: / one of wine, the second the ship of the sea;
All had abandoned themselves to the work of the water, / whereby a hundred tumults fell upon the sea.
Like bubbles, the friends lifted bottles / to spite the crystal sphere upon the face of the water;
The flagon came to a boil like the sea, / the cup became silent like a seashell;
A moon from whose envy the sun is in torment / cast fire into the water at every moment;
On every side a heap of coral and pearls, / the senses perfumed with pure ambergris;
The singer, with a dexterous hand before the companions, / added much luster to the play of the lute;
An august assembly, most soul-nourishing, / sweeter than anything of which men speak sweetly;
All hearts made joyful by the aid of fortune, / the eye of the ill-wisher kept far away from it—
until we reached the middle of the sea, and upon that ship, from contrary winds—like those who swallow cups of wine—alteration found its way;
and its planks, which were joined together like a continuous chain-script, became dispersed and separated from one another like disconnected letters;
and, like the meaningless and disjointed words of a poet, they became arranged; and from the blow
and by the impact of the sea's mountain-like waves, it became ruined and brought to naught, like the hope of a tyrant.

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"Its terrors are its waves, its lightning is the flash of lightning, its stars are the white clouds, and it is a sky and an earth, for contraries have gathered within it; will it not cause fear and
trembling?" And signs of "a wave covers it, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud" became manifest; and that "vessel of planks became like a feather in a
desert, which the winds turn about however they please." The sailor of the vessel, who used to surpass everyone in swimming, sank down like an anchor into the depths of the sea;
and the navigator, who was studying the charts of the voyage to the confluence of the two seas, washed the register of knowledge clean with the salt water of his eyes,

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[...]

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and settled beneath the water like a slab of stone. The sail, like the skirt of a lover yearning for the beloved, was torn into a thousand pieces,
and the mast, like the eyebrow of a sweetheart, bent beneath the shock of the wind: "The winds blow contrary to what
the ships desire."

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The company of passengers who were travelling in that floating house—notwithstanding that they had made detachment their inner and outer garment,
and after the manner of Sufis had abandoned all they possessed—found no refuge from the torrent of annihilation, and were drowned in the sea of mercy
and forgiveness, becoming, like Jonah, prisoners in the narrow belly of the fish. In that state, I counted myself
among the company of Noah's people, and from witnessing the perils of the encircling ocean, I washed my hands of my own sweet life. Verse:
I washed, poetry:

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"I have forgotten the foreheads in the abyss, / so that I thought myself in the drunkenness of the Day of Reckoning."
From the extremity of bewilderment and the anguish of the sea, I remained like a parched lip and a weeping eye, and clung to a single plank like
a letter upon a tablet, and inscribed the phrase "We are content with God's decree" upon the page of my mind.

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The author says:

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I wished for the pearl of my desire to fall into my hand;

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like an oyster shell, the water rose over my head through the revolution of the sphere.

73.1

When does every seeker obtain a pearl from the ocean of hope?

74.1

At times, from the churning of mountain-like waves, I became a confidant to the waterwheel of heaven; and at times, from the blow of violent winds,
I plunged like a diver into the depths of the water. The dust of the shore had become more precious than water, and
the precious pearl of my body, drenched in water, was left abased and wretched like the dust of the road. At times, from the freezing blast of its army and the chill of the air,
I trembled within myself like the reflection of the sun in water; and at times, from the dominance of weakness, infirmity, and the languor of bodily faculties,
like water poured upon pearls, I was left devoid of motion and agitation. From the lack of savor,

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[...]

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the tumult of the seawater dissolved like salt in water. Sustaining patience and steadfast, firm intellect,
like ice in the heat of midsummer, could not preserve its dignity:

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"My heart has become agitated, / like a fish that has departed from clear water."
May the foundations of heaven be ruined by the flood of annihilation!

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It cast my head upon the water like a water-lily.

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I did not preserve my dignity, for the sphere gave me over to the water.

77.1

The pure water of life's pleasure was troubled and altered by the turbidity of misfortunes; the mirror of the radiant face became rusted by the dampness of the water and
the foulness of the air; and the heart and hand of counsel were left shattered, more broken than glass upon stone. There was no companion save the harsh breath of the sea-monster,
and no bedfellow save the spiny body of the fish. However much I swam through the water, it did not
bring me from the tempest of affliction to the shore of safety. Eyes full of tears yearned with sight and soul for the vast expanse of the earth;
and whenever the pupil of the eye looked sharply into that water, from the extremity of awe and excess of dread,
that water appeared all as tempered swords and battle-axes, and every drop of wave-water that reached my body, from the extremity of
its salinity, made the body melt like wax before fire. When I saw my hand utterly falling short of the branch of hope,
with eyes full of tears and a heart full of fire, I opened my tongue in the Divine Presence with complete supplication to the verse: "Our Lord, lay not upon us that which we have no strength
to bear"; and from the ungrudging Generous Presence I prayed that He might make the sapling of my existence green and watered from
the shoreless ocean of His benevolence, and wash the dust of distress in living from the face of my circumstances with the clear water of the spring of His favor. And amidst this state I reflected within myself: "What
disgrace is this that has befallen me from the revolution of the azure sphere, and what shame is this that has taken away my honor
through the opposition of treacherous fate and vile fortune? Neither did I rescue a precious soul from the waves of perdition,
nor did I bring my own pearl to the surface of the water in fulfilling the king's grand affairs. And although before the tempered dagger
nor did I cast my own substance into the water in executing the overall interests of the king; and although from the sharp-tempered dagger

77.15

of the Angel of Death, by the decree 'Every soul shall taste death,' no soul can imagine escape or deliverance,

77.16

yet one soul-rending desire will remain in my heart until the morning of the Day of Resurrection, and every particle of my dust-turned body
will add manifold regrets and taste boundless sighs over its loss, and it is this:
that since the innumerable claims of the king's benefaction upon me from the cradle to this present era are firmly binding and incumbent upon my conscience,
and through the revolutions of time and the alternation of night and day no defect has entered into their foundations, but rather at every
moment and hour they have redoubled; and he has made one such as me—who, out of sheer obscurity, had made an abode like the Sīmurgh behind the Qāf of
misfortune, and like Mārūt was cast headlong into the bottom of the well of abasement and kept far from the eyes of the people of the world—
more renowned than the world-revealing sun and more exalted than the noble cypress. Poetry:
was, having made [him] more renowned than the world-displaying sun and more exalted than the noble cypress, verse:

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"Never did any calamity afflict me in time, / but that he was there taking me by the hand."
The tongue is too inadequate to give thanks for his generosities, / for from him is all bounty, and from me all failing.
I was like dust, with head cast down, and through his patronage / I became such that my head reaches the ethereal sphere.
It is by his aid that in resolving and executing the affairs of the world, / I am at such a degree that I have no peer in the age.
and raised my rank and status from the earth to the Pleiades, and from the lowest abyss of dust to the pinnacle of heaven, and the pen
that resolves difficulties in the vizierate of his vast realms—which a thousand Aristotles and Āṣafs would not be deemed worthy to undertake—
he entrusted to the hand of my competence and the fingers of my management; and he recorded my name, distinguishing it from the company of peers and the class of grandees,
at the head of the registers of proximity to his court; and he commanded the populace of subjects and the totality of creatures to execute
and carry out my decrees; and in every way, to confirm my authority—the record of which shall remain upon the register of night and day
until the Day of Reckoning—he bestowed sincere royal solicitude; and every patent of decree that was adorned with the pen
of my endorsement, he deemed the execution of its contents as necessary and obligatory as the scroll of destiny on the Night of Barat.
I too would fulfill the repayment of some of those past favors, the calculation of which would elude the most proficient geometricians until the Day of Reckoning,
and I would establish praiseworthy service that encompassed the completion of some category of the realm’s interests.
For a noble soul and a well-born person never, at any time, neglects the slightest detail in fulfilling the rights of his benefactor,
and in exchange for attending to the vital affairs of his patron, he holds his precious life of little account, and

77.40

a sincere servant of the king must be such that if, in the path of utmost devotion, the gem of his noble soul is cast into the burning fire
of adversities, like a ruby not an atom of change or alteration appears in its nature, but rather the gold of his sincerity,
like pure gold, becomes of higher assay; and if his precious limbs are cleaved into two halves by the saws of misfortunes like a platter,
he does not remove the ring of servitude from the ear of his heart and, like a threshold, does not abandon the door of his royal palace. When
a rose of good fortune smiles in the garden of his desires, he deems it obligatory to attribute it solely to the effusion of the cloud of the king's universal favor and bounty;
and if, contrary to that, like a willow, the tree of his hope remains barren and stripped of the fruit of success, he conceives it to be from the effect
of his own deficiency in tending the sapling of service and considers it the result of the adversity of his own unpropitious fortune. I was in
the midst of these reflections and thoughts when the breeze of the zephyr of God's infinite generosity blew upon the withered rose of my heart,
and the dawn of delight broke from the orient of fortune and prosperity; and the herald of auspicious fate delivered the glad tidings into the ear of my soul: 'And when We parted the sea for you
and rescued you,' and cast off the veil of hardship from the visage of comfort. And with the aid of
the blowing of a favorable wind, that plank of the ship reached one of the islands near Sarandīp. With a heart
bare of clothing like an alif, a stature bent like a nūn from an empty belly, and a face dotted like a Kufic Quran
from the succession of blood-stained drops of tears, I fell upon the shore of the sea. Out of extreme
bewilderment, I writhed upon myself like an alif and lām, and, keeping both eyes open like a dū-chashmah hā, watched the surroundings and
quarters. My lips, from biting in regret, had become tooth-notched like a sīn; my tongue, split down the middle like a kāf
from the urge of gnawing in the severity of hunger; my heart, constricted like the ring of a mīm from the extremity of grief and sorrow;
my soul, bowing its head like a tā in the corner of the body before the assault of the army of tribulations; and my body, from excess of emaciation and
abundance of weakness, remained a name without a referent, in the manner of a nunation. And from the effect of parting from the ease of life and the absence
of means for opening the door of deliverance, the body had become so weak and frail that raising my voice was in no way possible.
I envisioned the summoner of fate and the collector of death before my eyes, and having resolved upon bidding farewell to life,
I shed a sea of blood from each eye, until a period passed in this state, and
the commotion and terror of the surging waves subsided; and the soul, which had deemed it obligatory, out of dread of the host of affliction, to heed
the maxim 'fleeing from that which cannot be borne,' returned to its familiar dwelling in the body; and the heart, turned to blood,
which under the power of the army of sorrow had made weakness and impatience its companion, took rest and tranquility in the gardens of joy and

77.65

boundless delight. However, because for a long period the nutritive faculty had been afflicted by the lack of suitable food—which
is an evident cause for the constitution of the sons of Adam—and the fire of the stomach's hunger (for 'surely the stomach eats and
drinks' is one of its attributes) had utterly consumed the bodily faculties, and the body had become so emaciated
that unless my voice reached people's ears, they could not infer my existence; and the force of weakness had so overcome and dominated my limbs
that it was helpless and distressed under the burden of the shadow of a rose petal, and like
a violet turned livid from head to foot; and however much I wished to walk a few steps to seek and catch scent of news of any habitation or dwelling,
I could find no access to this desire, and like a chronically infirm earth, I was incapable of the slightest
movement. You would say this quatrain was uttered in description of the House of Sorrows of my breast, and in this
sense had been pierced as a pearl for the neck of my existence; verse:

77.74

If I sit upon a speck of dust, it does not stir; behold my fortune! / An ant carries off my baggage over two stages; behold my fortune!
Though by way of parable I make a morsel of the sun's disk, / it yields only darkness in my breast; behold my fortune!
For some time I was in this unpropitious state and sorrow-increasing contemplation, when suddenly on that island an ascetic arrived at my side,
the light of obedience shining from the lines of his sun-like brow, and his countenance of apparent grace
giving indication of the purport of 'their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration'; an immovable pole upon the sphere of grace, and
a guiding ghawth upon the mystical path; an elder with the breath of Jesus and the footstep of Moses, with the knowledge of Khiḍr and the character of Muṣṭafā; he had chosen detachment from all worldly
attachments and occupations, and like a sword was content with a garment of green; and in the midst of the affliction and hardship of the wilderness
he had made his dwelling and abode; and from the pleasures of carnal lusts, like a contented man from begging, he had tucked up the skirt of his soul;
he had turned his face from the love of house, wealth, and children, and set his back against the wall of contentment and ascetic discipline;
he had renewed his union with the bride of seclusion; like a ringdove he had placed the collar of yearning for the Unconditioned Divine Presence upon the neck
of his heart; and in the gardens of discipline, upon the bough of 'I have a time with God,' he sang his glorifications and litanies like a nightingale; verse:
verse:

77.86

He who has not seen the face of contentment has seen nothing; / he who has not attained the honor of seclusion has attained nothing.
He had burned his pleasure-seeking self like a candle in the heat of the sun of deprivation and longing, so that he might attain to the sheltering shade
of the shadows of Ṭūbā, and resigned himself to a bed of granite and thorns so that upon the enduring throne of the gardens of the highest paradise

77.90

he might fashion a bolster of silk and brocade. For the green robe of exaltation is put on by one who, like
the luminary of the heavens, has raised a hundred thousand lamps and torches of light in the courtyard of his pure breast, and who, like
the surface of a sword blade, is adorned and ornamented from head to foot with the bright jewels of detachment; who, like the Encircling Ocean,
embraces this heap of dust like a Sufi and moistens it, and who, after the manner of a water-lily, casts his prayer-rug upon the face of the water through swimming the seas of gnosis;
and if the tyrants of realms of injustice trample his head and body like grass beneath cruelty
and enmity, out of utmost endurance he does not raise his head or turn aside from the path of patience; and if, like a violet,
under the assault of the blast of endless oppression and cruelty they double over his head and stature, like the lily he restrains his tongue from the liberty
of reciting sorrowful stories and complaint-filled narratives, keeping it mute. When he saw me like a fish out of water, in agony and
distress, prompted by perfect compassion he inquired into the circumstances of my condition. I recounted the manner of my departure,
the event of the ship sinking, and my endurance of the boundless afflictions of the sea, word by word, before him.

77.100

The ascetic took pity on my fire-filled chest, and at the sight of my tear-filled eyes, bloody tears rained down from his own eyes.
After three days, when the power of the four elements began to visit the infirm body, and the five senses
escaped from the impasse of calamity, he took me in his companionship to a garden wherein he watered the meadows of ascetic discipline
and in its precinct illuminated the candle of his inner conscience with the lights of gnosis. Like
an accountant's finger at the time of reckoning, stumbling and rising in following him, I set foot upon the path, and with the endurance of great hardship
I reached the aforementioned place. To strengthen my weak soul and emaciated body, he went to fetch various
fruits; and whichever tree he raised his head toward, its fruit fell down into his skirt without the trouble of breaking it.
When his skirt was filled with various fresh fruits, he brought them before me by way of a gift, and opened his tongue
with an apology, saying, ‘Gifts are according to the measure of the giver.’ Out of extreme starvation I had reached such a pass,
and had become so wishful, that at night I expected a grain from the harvest of the moon, and by day, in hope of the disc of
the sun, I kept my mouth open like an oven; like a chameleon I would not take my two eyes off it, and hoping that
a crust of bread might fall into its mouth, the heart burned upon the fire of the chest like a frying pan; and my soul, out of the severity of the torment of the fire
of hunger, was sated with the pleasure of life and resigned itself to departing from the body. I imagined that perhaps Riḍwān
had brought the blessings of the highest paradise as a gift to this forsaken one, or that the cloud of divine generosity had rained drops of mercy
upon the garden of that ascetic and endowed its fruits with the sweetness of the taste of Paradise. When the fire of hunger

77.116

was extinguished, and my departed strength returned to its dwelling in the body and settled there, I loosened my tongue in praise and laudation of the Creator, exalted be
His name, and placed my head upon the dust of humble submission to offer a prostration of gratitude, until the bride of the fairy-faced sun,
resembling the soul, drew her face into the veil of concealment, and the face of the air, out of extreme darkness, began to appear more terrifying than
the unsightly countenance of demons. The ascetic came to me and said: ‘Although companionship with someone like
you is a cause of comfort for the soul, and separation from you requires the wounding of the hearts of friends, remaining
and sleeping by night in the precinct of this garden is not advisable, and on this account many perils will encompass your condition and
disturb your life; for in this garden there is a jinni who rules and holds sway over a company of other jinn.

77.124

“A playground of jinn; had Solomon traversed it, / he would have traveled with an interpreter.”
And in this way that group wears the collar of obedience upon their necks and spends their days in submission and
allegiance to him. When Alexander, the world-conqueror of the world-revealing mirror of the sun, appears atop the sphere,
like Alexander they wander in his company around the corners and quarters of the world; and when the tirewoman of divine power,
in order to display the bright-faced brides of the stars, prepares the redness of twilight and the indigo of musk,
they all return and take up rest and quiet in the court of this garden. And except for me, who for years have practiced the path of mixing
and intimacy with them and laid a firm foundation for covenant and pact, it is impossible for another to dwell here by night.
Whoever they find at night in this garden, like a rose they tear the garment of his existence to pieces,
and like a tulip they seat him in a basin of blood. A few parasangs away from this garden there is an inhabited place; I
shall guide you to it. In accord with me, you must resolve to go, so that you may remain safe from the evil of opposing
the jinn and keep their harming hand away from your hem. Moreover, that place is far
more charming and delightful than this garden, and the distance between the two is small.’ The minister says: As soon as
I heard this news, I considered abandoning those perilous and dangerous hazards to be the proper and prudent course, and regarded deviation from
the pathways and tracks of good as the result of weakness of judgment and lack of wisdom. At nightfall, in the ascetic's company,
I set foot on the path and entrusted the reins of welfare to the hand of his good favor. Although the darkness of night had made the face of the air
like the smoke of grief, and so fouled the expanse of the world with pitch and tar that the pearls of the stars appeared blacker than

77.141

jet-black beads, and the disc of the moon seemed in sight like an unpolished mirror; you would have said that the books of deeds
of the sinners had been spread open across the expanse of the world, or that the hearts of polytheists had been deposited in the middle of the air;
the human breath, like a blind button-bead without a guide, lost the path to the lips, and speech could find no way at all to the opening of the ear. By the author:
he did not perceive. By the author:

77.145

“And a night of trailing skirts, letting down curtains from the pitch darkness, / so that it covered all that was visible;
Even had the blazing sun unveiled her face in it, / from the excess of its darkness her light would have become hidden.”
One saw the revolving sphere within it as though it were sick, having forgotten its rotation;
The ascetic, guided by inner light and directed by the candle of the conscience, went along ways crooked as a bow, straighter than an arrow,
and did not let go of my hand for a single moment, like a bead of a rosary, until the moment when that
flowing enclosed fountain and that bestower of the world's dignity, that naked one who clothes the people of the world in robes of light, and that
lord who turns the pebble on the mountain peak into a lustrous gem, that army-less conqueror of the world, that traveler of sea
and land, that bezel of the signet-ring of heaven, that neighbor of the abode of the Messiah, a fire that pours the Water of Life of growth and flourish into the palate
of plant offspring, and a painter who blends another color in the hidden depths of every mine, now giving the gold-woven veil of twilight
to evening, now placing the silver-coated cloak of morning upon the shoulder of dawn, now setting the moon like a silver ball rolling
in the arena of the emerald plain of the sky, and now hiding it like a golden polo-stick in the corner of the west, now
wearing a golden crown on its head like Jamshīd, and now donning a black garment over green in the manner of the Abbasids, that warm loaf
which falls into no mouth but that of nature, that unminted dinar which enters the pocket of no hopeful soul, that affliction-
increaser of those who fast, that unveiler of thieves showed its face; following the guidance of that serene ascetic and
special servant of the Divine Majesty, I reached the promised place. I saw a garden pure and heart-expanding like the highest Paradise,
and with varieties of sweet-smelling herbs beyond count and reckoning like the leaves of trees, colorful, musky white flowers upon
green boughs appearing in such a way that you would say luminous stars had risen on the apex of the revolving celestial sphere, or
the hand of divine omnipotence had scattered royal pearls upon the emerald court. The red rose gave a sign of Joseph's
torn, blood-stained shirt, and the narcissus, exactly like the eye of Zulaykhā awaiting the sight of her beloved,
did not blink an eye:

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Linked texts (1)

Basātīn al-uns — Ṣadr al-Dīn Akhtasān Dihlavī, Persian