How the King, in the midst of the Diwan and assembly-place, put a pearl in the hand of the Vizier and asked him what it was worth; and how the Vizier gave an extremely high estimate of its value; and when the King commanded him to break it, answered, “How should I break it ?” and so forth.

(4035) One day the King hastened to the Diwan: in the Diwan he found all the courtiers.

(4036) He produced a radiant pearl and immediately put it in the palm of the Vizier.

(4037) “How about this pearl ?” he asked, “and what is it worth ?” He replied, “is worth more than a hundred ass-loads of gold.”

(4038) He said, “Break it !” “How should I break it ?” he replied: “I am a well-wisher to your treasury and riches.

(4039) How should I deem it allowable that a priceless pearl like this should go to waste ?”

(4040) “Well said !” exclaimed the King and presented him with a dress of honour; the generous King took the pearl from him,

(4041) The munificent monarch bestowed on the Vizier every garment and robe that he wore.

(4042) For a while he engaged them in conversation concerning new event and old mystery.

(4043) Afterwards he put it into the hand of a chamber lain, saying, “What is it worth to a would-be purchaser ?

(4044) He replied, “It is worth half a kingdom: may God preserve it from destruction !”

(4045) “Break it,” said he. “O you whose sword is like the sun he replied, “Alas, it is a great pity to break it.

(4046) Let alone its value, mark its splendour and brilliancies: this daylight has become second to it.

(4047) How should my hand make a movement to break it ? How should I be an enemy to the King’s treasure-house ?”

(4048) The King gave him a robe of honour and increased his stipend, and then opened his mouth in praise of his intelligence;

(4049) After a short time he who was making the trial again handed the pearl to the Minister of Justice (Mir-i dad).

(4050) He said the same, and all the Amirs said the same: he bestowed a costly robe of honour on every one.

(4051) The King was raising their salaries; he brought those base wretches from the Way to the pit.

(4052) All the fifty or sixty Amirs, one by one, spoke like this in imitation of the Vizier.

(4053) Though imitation is the pillar of the (present) world, every imitator is disgraced on being put to the trial.

(4054) “Now, O Ayaz, will not you say how much a pearl of this splendour and excellence is worth ?”

(4055) He replied, “More than I am able to say.” He said, “Now break it immediately into small fragments.”

(4056) He had stones in his sleeve: he quickly reduced it to dust, that seemed to him the right course.

(4057) Or that entirely sincere man had dreamed of this and put the two stones under his arm,

(4071) When he broke that choice pearl, thereupon from the Amirs arose a hundred clamours and outcries.

(4072) “What recklessness is this ? By God, whoever has broken this luminous pearl is an infidel.”

(4073) And the whole company in their ignorance and blindness had broken the pearl of the King’s command.

(4074) The precious pearl, the product of love and affection - why was it veiled from hearts like those ?

How the Amirs reviled Ayaz, saying, “Why did he break it ?” and how Ayaz answered them.

(4075) Ayaz said, “O renowned princes, is the King’s command more precious or the pearl ?

(4076) In your eyes is the command of the sovereign or this goodly pearl superior ? For God’s sake !

(4077) O you whose gaze is upon the pearl, not upon the King, the ghoul is your object of desire, not the highway.

(4078) I will never avert my gaze from the King, I will not turn my face towards a stone, like the polytheist.

(4079) Devoid of the pearl is the soul that prefers a coloured stone and puts my King behind.”

(4080) Turn your back towards the rose-coloured doll; lose your reason in Him who bestows the colour.

(4081) Come into the river, dash the pitcher against the stone, and set fire to scent and colour.

(4082) If you are not one of the brigands on the Way of the Religion, do not be addicted, like women, to colour and scent.

(4083) Those princes cast down their heads, craving with their soul to be excused for that forgetfulness.

(4086) How are these vile wretches worthy of my seat of honour, when they break my command for the sake of a stone ?

Commentary on the Saying of Pharaoh’s magicians in the hour of their punishment, “it is no harm, for lo, we shall return unto our Lord.”

(4120) Heaven heard the cry, “it is no harm”: the celestial sphere became a ball for that bat.

(4121) “The punishment inflicted by Pharaoh is no harm to us: the grace of God prevails over the violence of others.

(4122) If you should know our secret, O misleader, you are delivering us from pain, O man whose heart is blind.

(4123) Listen, come and from this quarter behold this organ pealing (Hadith) "Oh, would that my people knew !"

(4124) God’s bounty has bestowed Pharaohship on us, not a perishable one like your Pharaohship and kingdom.

(4125) Lift up your head and behold the living and majestic kingdom, O you who have been deluded by Egypt and the river Nile.

(4126) If you will take leave of this filthy tattered cloak, you will drown the Nile in the Nile of the spirit.

(4127) Listen, O Pharaoh, hold your hand from Egypt: there are a hundred Egypts within the Egypt of the Spirit.

(4128) You say to the common, ‘I am a Lord,’ being unaware of the essential natures of both these names.

(4129) How should a Lord be trembling for that which is lorded over ? How should one who knows ‘I’ be in bondage to body and soul ?

(4130) Lo, we are the real ‘I,’ having been freed from the unreal ‘I,’ from the ‘I’ that is full of tribulation and trouble.

(4042) If you seek the real “I”-hood, it will not become a seeker of you: when you have died to self will that which you seek become your seeker.

(4043) If you are living, how should the corpse-washer wash you ? If you are seeking, how should that which you seek go in search of you ?

(4046) How should this “I” be revealed by thinking ? That “I” is revealed after passing away from self (faná).

Ya Ali Madad