On seeking the tree whereof none that eats the fruit shall die.

3641. A learned man (once) said, for the sake of (telling) a story, “In India there is a certain tree:

3642. Whoso takes and eats of its fruit, he grows not old nor ever dies.”

3643. A king heard this (tale) from a veracious person: he became a lover of the tree and its fruit.

3644. From the Divan of culture he sent an intelligent envoy to India in search (of it).

3645. For (many) years his envoy wandered about India in quest (of the tree).

3646. He roamed from town to town for this object: neither island nor mountain nor plain was left (unvisited).

3647. Every one whom he asked made a mock of him, saying, “Who would search after this, unless perhaps a madman in confinement?”

3648. Many slapped him jocosely; many said, “O fortunate man,

3649. How should the enquiry of a clever and clear-minded person like you be devoid (of result)? How should it be vain?”

3650. And this (ironical) respect was to him another slap, and it was harder (to bear) than the visible slap.

3651. They extolled him sarcastically, saying, “O great sir, in such and such a place there is a very huge tree.

3652. In such and such a forest there is a green tree, very tall and broad, and every branch of it is big.”

3653. The king's envoy, who had braced his belt for the quest, was hearing a different kind of report from every one;

3654. So he travelled there for years, (whilst) the king kept sending money to him.

3655. After he had suffered much fatigue in that foreign land, at last he became too exhausted to seek (any longer).

3656. No trace of the object of pursuit was discovered: of what he wanted nothing appeared but the report.

3657. The thread of his hope snapped, the thing he had sought became unsought in the end.

3658. He resolved to return to the king, (and set out) shedding tears and traversing the way.

How the Shaykh explained the hidden meaning of the tree to the seeker who was in the bondage of formalism.

3659. There was a wise Shaykh, a noble Qutb, at the halting-place where the king's intimate fell into despair.

3660. He (the envoy) said, “Being without hope, I will go to him, and set out on the road (again) from his threshold,

3661. In order that his prayer (blessing) may accompany me, since I have no hope of (winning) my heart's desire.”

3662. With tearful eyes he went to the Shaykh: he was raining tears, like a cloud.

3663. “O Shaykh,” he cried, “it is the time for mercy and pity; I am in despair: now is the time for kindness.”

3664. He (the Shaykh) said, “Say plainly what is the cause of thy despair: what is thy object? what hast thou in view*?”

3665. He answered, “The Emperor chose me out to seek a certain branching tree,

3666. For there is a tree, unique in (all) the quarters (of the world): its fruit is (of) the substance of the Water of Life.

3667. I have sought (it) for years and seen no sign (of it) except the gibes and ridicule of these merry men.”

3668. The Shaykh laughed and said to him, “O simpleton, this is the tree of knowledge in the sage.

3669. Very high and very grand and very far-spreading: (it is) a Water of Life from the all-encompassing Sea (of God).

3670. Thou hast gone after the form, thou hast gone astray: thou canst not find (it) because thou hast abandoned the reality.

3671. Sometimes it is named ‘tree,’ sometimes ‘sun’; sometimes it is named ‘sea,’ sometimes ‘cloud.’

3672. (It is) that one (thing) from which a hundred thousand effects arise: its least effects are everlasting life.

3673. Although (in essence) it is single, it hath a thousand effects: innumerable names befit (may be properly applied to) that one (thing).

3674. One person may be father in relation to thee; in regard to another individual he may be son. 3675. In regard to another he may be wrath and a foe; in regard to another he may be graciousness and a friend.

3676. (He hath) hundreds of thousands of names, (but) he is one man: the owner of every quality belonging to him is blind to (incapable of) giving any (true) description (of him).

3677. Whoever seeks the (mere) name, if he is entrusted (with a confidential mission) he is hopeless and in distraction, even as thou art.

3678. Why dost thou stick to the name ‘tree,’ so that thou art left bitterly disappointed and ill-fortuned?

3679. Pass on from the name and look at the attributes, in order that the attributes may show thee the way to the essence.”

3680. The disagreement of mankind is caused by names: peace ensues when they advance to the reality (denoted by the name).

How four persons quarrelled about grapes, which were known to each of them by a different name.

3681. A certain man gave a dirhem to four persons: one of them (a Persian) said, “I will spend this on angúr.”

3682. The second one was an Arab: he said, “No, I want ‘inab, not angúr, O rascal!”

3683. The third was a Turk; and he said, “This (money) is mine: I don't want ‘inab, I want uzum.”

3684. The fourth, a Greek, said, “Stop this talk: I want istáfíl.”

3685. These people began fighting in contention with one another, because they were unaware of the hidden meaning of the names.

3686. In their folly they smote each other with their fists: they were full of ignorance and empty of knowledge.

3687. If a master of the esoteric had been there, a revered and many-languaged man, he would have pacified them;

3688. And then he would have said, “With this one dirhem I will give all of you what ye wish.

3689. When without deceit ye surrender your hearts (to me), this dirhem will do all this for you.

3690. Your one dirhem will become four—the result desired: four enemies will become one through unanimity.

3691. What each one of you says produces strife and separation; what I say brings you agreement.

3692. Therefore be ye mute, keep silence, that I may be your tongue in speech and talk.”

3693. (Even) if in their agreement with each other your words are (as) a strong rope, in effect they are a source of contention and distraction.

3700. As (for example) Solomon, who sped (on his prophetic mission) from God, and who knew the language of all birds.

3701. In the time of his just sway the deer made friends with the leopard and ceased from war.

3702. The dove became secure from the talons of the hawk, the sheep took no precaution against the wolf. 3703. He (Solomon) became an arbitrator between enemies: he became a (means of establishing) oneness between the creatures that fly with wings.

3704. Thou art running after grain, like an ant. Hark! seek for Solomon! Why art thou still astray?

3705. To the seeker of grain his grain becomes a snare, but the seeker of Solomon may have both (Solomon and the grain).

3706. In these latter days the soul-birds have no security from each other for a moment;

3707. (Yet) even in our epoch there is a Solomon who would give (us) peace and not suffer our injustice to continue.

3741. The difficulty over angúr and ‘inab was not solved by the contest between the Turk, the Greek, and the Arab.

3742. Until the spiritual Solomon, skilled in tongues, shall intervene, this duality will not disappear.

3743. O all ye wrangling birds, hearken, like the falcon, to this falcon-drum of the King.

3744. Hark, from every quarter set out with joy, (flying away) from your diversity towards oneness.

3745. Wheresoever ye be, turn your faces towards it: this is the thing which He hath not forbidden unto you (at any time).

3746. Blind birds are we and very inept, in that we have not once recognised that Solomon.

3765. And (even by) thy hopping lamely and limply in that direction, thou wilt be freed from all lameness and limpness.

The story of the ducklings which were fostered by a domestic fowl.

3766. Thou art the offspring of a duck, though a domestic fowl has nursed thee beneath her wing.

3767. Thy mother was the duck of that Sea; thy nurse was of the earth and devoted to the land.

3768. The desire which is in thy heart for the Sea—thy soul hath that nature (instinct) from thy mother.

3769. The desire thou hast for the land is from this nurse. Leave the nurse, for she is an evil counsellor.

3770. Leave the nurse on the land, and press on: come into the Sea of spiritual reality, like the ducks.

3771. (Even) if thy mother should bid thee be afraid of the water, fear not thou, but push speedily into the Sea.

3772. Thou art a duck: thou art one that lives (both) on dry and wet; thou art not one like the domestic fowl, whose house is dug (in the ground).

3773. Thou art a king in virtue of (the text), We have ennobled the sons of Adam: thou settest foot both on the dry land and on the Sea.

3774. For in spirit thou art (what is signified by the text), We have conveyed them on the Sea: push forward (then) from (the state implied in the words), We have conveyed them on the land.

3775. The angels have no access to the land; the animal kind, again, are ignorant of the (spiritual) Sea.

3776. Thou in (thy) body art an animal, and in (thy) spirit thou art of the angels, so that thou mayst walk on the earth and also in the sky;

3777. So that the seer with heart divinely inspired may be, in appearance, a man like yourselves.

3778. His body of dust (is here), fallen upon the earth; (but) his spirit (is) circling in yonder highest sphere (of Heaven).

3779. We all are water-birds, O lad: the Sea fully knows our language.

3780. Therefore the Sea is (our) Solomon, and we are as the birds (familiar with Solomon): in Solomon we move unto everlasting.

3781. With Solomon set thy foot in the Sea, that the water, David-like, may make a hundred rings of mail (ripples).

3782. That Solomon is present to all, but (His) jealousy binds (our) eyes (with spells) and enchants (us),

3783. So that from folly and drowsiness (forgetfulness) and vanity— He is beside us, and (yet) we are sick of Him.

3784. The noise of thunder gives the thirsty man headache, when he does not know that it (the thunder) brings on the rain-clouds of felicity.

3785. His eye remains (fixed) upon the running stream, unaware of the delicious taste of the Water of Heaven.

3786. He has urged the steed of (his) attention towards (secondary) causes: consequently he remains debarred from the Causer.

3787. (But) one that sees the Causer plainly—how should he set his mind upon the (secondary) causes in the world? How the pilgrims were amazed at the miracles of the ascetic whom they found (living) alone in the desert.

3788. Amidst the desert lived an ascetic, absorbed in devotion like the people of ‘Abbádán.

3789. The pilgrims from (different) countries arrived there: their eyes fell upon the parched ascetic.

3790. The dwelling-place of the ascetic was dry, (but) he was moist in temperament: in the simoom of the desert he had a remedy (for his moistness).

3791. The pilgrims were amazed at his solitude and his welfare in the midst of bane.

3792. He stood on the sand, (engaged) in the ritual prayer—sand from the heat whereof the water in a pot would boil.

3793. You would have said he was (standing) enraptured amongst herbs and flowers, or mounted on Buráq or Duldul;

3794. Or that his feet were on silk and broidered cloths; or that to him the simoom was more pleasant than the zephyr.

3795. They (the pilgrims) stood waiting, (whilst) he remained standing in prayer, (sunk) in long meditation.

3796. When the dervish came back (to himself) from (his state of) absorption (in God), one of that company, a man (spiritually) alive and of enlightened mind,

3797. Observed that water was trickling from his hands and face, (and that) his garment was wet with the traces of ablution;

3798. So he asked him, “Whence hast thou water?” He lifted his hand, (indicating) that it came from heaven.

3799. He (the pilgrim) said, “Does it come whenever thou wilt, without (any) well and without (any) rope of palm-fibre?

3800. Solve our difficulty, O Sultan of the Religion, in order that thy (spiritual) experience may give us certain faith.

3801. Reveal to us one of thy mysteries, that we may cut from our waists the cords (of infidelity).”

3802. He (the ascetic) turned his eyes to heaven, saying, “(O God), answer the prayer of the pilgrims!

3803. I am accustomed to seeking daily bread from above: Thou hast opened to me the door from above,

3804. O Thou who from non-spatiality hast brought space into view, and hast made manifest (the fact that) in heaven is your daily bread.”

3805. In the midst of this orison a fair cloud suddenly appeared, like a water bearing elephant,

3806. And began to pour down rain, like water from a water-skin: the rain-water settled in the ditch and in the hollows.

3807. The cloud kept raining tears, like a water-skin, and the pilgrims all opened their water-skins.

3808. One party (among them), in consequence of those marvellous happenings, were cutting the cords (of unbelief) from their waists.

3809. The certainty (faith) of another group was on the increase because of this miracle—and God knows best how to guide aright.

3810. Another group (were) unreceptive, sour and unripe, eternally imperfect ones. (Here) ends the discourse.

Part 2 is complete.