How the slave wrote to the King a statement complaining of the reduction of his allowance.

(1562) Cut short the discourse for the sake of the slave who has written a message to the King.

(1563) He is sending to the gracious King a statement filled with wrangling and self-conceit and hatred.

(1564) The body is a letter: look into it whether it is worthy of the King; then take it.

(1565) Go into a corner, open the letter, read, and see whether its words are suitable to kings.

(1566) If it be not suitable, tear it in pieces and write another letter and remedy.

(1567) But do not think it is easy to open the letter which is the body; otherwise everyone would plainly see the secret of the heart.

(1568) How hard and difficult is it to open the letter ! It is a task for men, not for children playing at knuckle.

(1569) We have all become satisfied with the table of contents, because we are steeped in cupidity and vain desire.

(1570) The table of contents is a snare for the ordinary that they may think the text of the scroll is like that.

(1571) Open the title-page, do not turn your neck aside from these words— and God best knows the right course.

(1572) That title is like a declaration made by the tongue: examine the text of the scroll, namely, the bosom.

How Abu Yazíd Bistami announced the birth of Abu ’l-Hasan Kharraqání— may God sanctify the spirit of them both years before it took place, and gave a detailed description of his outer and inner characteristics; and how the chroniclers wrote it down for the purpose of observation.

(1802) Have you heard the story of Bayazid - what he saw beforehand of the state of Bu ’l-Hasan ?

(1803) One day that sultan of piety (Bayazid) was passing with his disciples towards the open country and the plain.

(1804) Suddenly there came to him, in the district of Rayy, a sweet scent from the direction of Kharaqan.

(1805) On the spot he uttered the lamentable cry of one who is yearning, and sniffed the scent from the breeze.

(1806) He was inhaling the sweet scent lovingly: his soul was tasting wine from the breeze.

(1810) When the marks of intoxication appeared in him, a disciple questioned him concerning that breath;

(1811) Then he asked him, “these sweet ecstasies which are beyond the pale of the five and the six ?

(1812) Your face is becoming now red and now yellow and now white: what is the hap and the glad tidings ?

(1813) You are inhaling scent, and no flowers are visible: doubtless it is from the Unseen and from the garden of the Universal.

(1814) You to whom there is at every moment a message and letter from the Unseen,

(1815) You to whose organ of smell there is coming at every moment, as to Jacob, balm from a Joseph,

(1816) Spill upon us one drop from that pitcher; give us one word that smells of that garden.

The words of the Prophet, may God bless and save him, “Truly, I feel the Breath of the Merciful from the direction of Yemen.

(1834) He said, “The scent of a friend is coming from this quarter, for a monarch is coming into this village.

(1835) After such and such a number of years a king will be born: he will pitch a tent above the heavens.

(1836) His face will be coloured with roses from God’s rose garden: he will surpass me in station.”

(1837) "What is his name ?” He replied, “His name is Bu ’l- Hasan,” and described his features—his eyebrows and chin;

(1838) He described his height and his complexion and his figure and spoke in detail of his locks of hair and his face.

(1839) He also declared his spiritual features— his qualities and the way and his rank and estate.

(1840) The bodily features, like the body, are borrowed: set not your heart on them, for they are lasting one hour.

(1841) The features of the natural spirit also are perishable: seek the features of that spirit which is above the sky.

(1842) Its body is on the earth, like a lamp, its light is above the Seventh Roof.

(1843) Those rays of the sun are in the house; their orb is in the Fourth Dome.

(1844) The form of the rose is beneath the nose for idle pleasure’s sake, the scent of the rose is on the roof and palace of the brain.

(1845) A man asleep sees terror at Aden: the reflection thereof appears as sweat on his body.

(1846) The shirt was in Egypt in the keeping of one exceedingly careful: Canaan was filled with the scent of that shirt.

(1847) Thereupon they wrote down the date: they adorned the spit with the meat for roasting.

(1848) When the right time and date arrived, that king was born and played the dice of empire.

(1849) After those years, Bu ’l-Hasan appeared after the death of Bayazid.

(1850) All his dispositions, of withholding tenaciously or bestowing liberally, proved to be such as that king had foretold.

(1851) His guide is “the guarded tablet.” From what is it guarded ? It is guarded from error.

(1852) The inspiration of God is not astrology or geomancy or dreams and God best knows what is right.

(1853) The Sufis in explaining call it the inspiration of the heart, in order to disguise from the vulgar.

(1854) Take it to be the inspiration of the heart, for it is the place where He is seen: how should there be error when the heart is aware of Him ?

(1855) O true believer, you have become seeing by the light of God: you have become secure from error and inadvertence.

The reduction of the allowance of God’s food for the soul and heart of the Sufi.

(1856) How should a Sufi be grieved on account of poverty ? The very essence of poverty becomes his nurse and his food,

(1857) Because Paradise has grown from thing disliked, and Mercy is the portion of one who is helpless and broken.

(1860) Happy is the Sufi whose daily bread is reduced: his bead becomes a pearl, and he becomes the Sea.

(1861) Whosoever has become acquainted with that choice (spiritual) allowance, he has become worthy of approach and of the Source of allowance.

(1862) When there is a reduction of that spiritual allowance, his spirit trembles on account of its reduction;

(1863) Then he knows that a fault has been committed which has ruffled the jasmine-bed of approbation,

(1864) Just as that person, on account of the deficiency of his crop, wrote a letter to the owner of the harvest.

(1865) They brought his letter to the lord of justice: he read the letter and returned no answer.

(1866) He said, “He has no care but for delicacies: silence, then, is the best answer to a fool.

(1867) He has no care at all for separation or union: he is confined to the branch; he does not seek the root at all.

(1868) He is a fool and dead in egoism, for because of his anxious care for the branch he has no leisure for the root.”

(1869) Deem the skies and the earth to be an apple that appeared from the tree of Divine Power.

(1870) You are as a worm in the midst of the apple and art ignorant of the tree and the gardener.

(1871) The other worm too is in the apple, but its spirit is outside, bearing the banner aloft.

(1872) Its movement splits the apple asunder: the apple cannot endure that shock.

(1873) Its movement has rent veils: its form is a worm, but its reality is a dragon.

(1874) The fire that first darts from the steel puts forth its foot very feebly.

(1875) Cotton is its nurse at first, but in the end it carries its flames up to the ether.

(1876) At first, man is in bondage to sleep and food; ultimately he is higher than the angels.

(1881) The days of the body, are increased by the spirit: mark what becomes of the body when the spirit goes.

(1882) The range of your body is an ell or two, no more: your spirit is a maker of swift flights to heaven.

(1883) In the spirit’s imagination, O prince, it is half a step to Baghdad and Samarkand.

(1888) Pass beyond Man and disputation unto the shore of the sea of the spirit of Gabriel.

(1889) After that, the, spirit of Ahmad will bite your lip, and Gabriel will creep back in fear of you,

(1890) And will say, “If I come one bow’s length towards you, I shall be instantly consumed.”

How the slave was indignant because no reply to his letter arrived from the king.

(1891) That youth, without a reply to his letter, is aggrieved.

(1892) And says, “Oh, it is a wonder. How did the king give me no reply ?

(1894) I will write another letter by way of test and seek another accomplished messenger.”

(1895) That heedless man ignorantly puts the blame on the Amir and the steward and the letter-carrier.

(1896) Never does he go round about himself and say, “I have acted perversely, like the idolater in religion.

How the wind blew perversely against Solomon, because of his lapse.

(1897) The wind moved perversely against Solomon’s throne. Then Solomon said, “O wind, do not creep perversely.”

(1898) The wind too said, “Do not move perversely, O Solomon; and if you move perversely, be not angry at my perverseness.

(1899) God set up these scales for the purpose that justice might be done to us in eternity.

(1900) You give short measure, I will give short measure; so long as you are honest with me, I am honest.”

(1901) Likewise, Solomon’s tiara swerved to one side and made the bright day as night to him.

(1902) He said, “O tiara, do not become awry on my head: O sun, do not decline from my orient.”

(1903) He was putting the tiara straight with his hand, the tiara always became awry for him again, O youth.

(1904) Eight times he straightened it, and it became awry.

(1905) He said, “Why, what is the matter, O tiara ? Do not sag crookedly.” It replied, “If you put me straight a hundred times,

(1906) I go awry since you go awry, O trusted one.” Then Solomon put straight his inward part: he made his heart cold to the lust which it had.

(1907) Thereupon his tiara immediately became straight and such as he wished it to be.

(1908) Afterwards he was purposely making it awry, the tiara always returned purposely, seeking the crown of his head.

(1909) Eight times did that prince make it awry, and did it become straight on the crown of his head.

(1910) The tiara began to speak, saying, “O king, display pride: since you have shaken your wings free from the clay, take flight.

(1924) God’s ordainment comes into view on the tablet in such wise as Bayazid’s prediction of the future event.

How Shaykh Abu ’l-Hasan, heard Bayazid’s announcement of his coming into existence and of what should happen to him.

(1925) It came to pass just as he had said. Bu ’l-Hasan heard from the people that,

(1926) "Hasan will be my disciple and my true follower, and will receive lessons from my tomb at every dawn.”

(1927) He said, “I have also seen him in a dream and have heard this from the spirit of the Shaykh.”

(1928) Every dawn he would set his face towards the grave and stand in attention till the forenoon,

(1929) And either the apparition of the Shaykh would come to him, or without anything spoken his difficulty would be solved,

(1930) Till one day he came auspiciously: the graves were covered with new-fallen snow.

(1931) He saw the snows, wreath on wreath like flags, mound on mound; and his soul was grieved.

(1932) From the shrine of the living Shaykh came to him a cry, “Listen, I call you that you may run to me.

(1933) Hey, come quickly in this direction, towards my voice: if the world is snow, do not turn your face away from me.”

(1934) From that day his state became excellent, and he saw those wondrous things which at first he was hearing.

How the slave wrote another letter to the king when he received no reply to the first letter.

(1935) That evil-thinking one wrote another letter, full of vituperation and clamour and loud complaint.

(1937) The fair-cheeked read that second one also, and as before he gave him no reply and kept silence.

(1938) The king was withholding all favour from him: he repeated the letter five times.

(1939) “After all,” said the chamberlain, “he is your slave: if you write a reply to him, it is fitting.

(1941) He said, “This is easy; but he is fool: a foolish man is foul and rejected of God.

(1951) If the fool put sweetmeat on my lip, I am in a fever from his sweetmeat.”

(1952) If you are goodly and enlightened, know this for sure, kissing the arse of an ass has no savour.

(1953) He uselessly makes your moustache fetid; your dress is blackened by his kettle without a table.

(1954) Intelligence is the table, not bread and roast-meat: the light of intelligence, O son, is the nutriment for the soul.

(1955) Man has no food but the light: the soul does not obtain nourishment from aught but that.

(1956) Little by little cut off from these foods - for these are the nutriment of an ass, not that of a free man.

(1957) So that you may become capable of the original nutriment and may eat habitually the dainty morsels of the light.

(1958) It is the reflection of that light that this bread has become bread; it is the overflowing of that soul that this soul has become (physical) soul.

(1959) When you eat once of the light (Noor) you will pour earth over the bread and oven.

Ya Ali Madad