Anecdote of a king who brought a learned doctor into his banquet-hall by force and made him sit down. The cup-bearer offered him wine and held out the goblet to him, the doctor averted his face and began to look sour and behave rudely. The king said to the cup-bearer, “Come, and put him in a good humour.” The cup-bearer beat him on the head several times and made him drink the wine, etc.

3914 - A drunk king was feasting merrily, a certain jurist passed by his gate.

3915 - He gave directions, saying, “Bring him into this hall and give him a drink of the ruby wine.”

3916 - So they brought him to the king, he had no choice: he sat down in the hall, sour as poison and snakes.

3917 - He offered him wine; he angrily refused it and averted his eyes from the king and the cup-bearer,

3918 - Saying, “I have never drunk wine in my life: rank poison would please me better than wine.

3919 - Hey, give me some poison instead of the wine that I may be delivered from myself and you from this.”

3920 - Without having drunk wine, he began to make a row and became as disagreeable to the company as death and pangs.

3921 - Like carnal earthly-minded people in the world when they sit with spiritual folk.

3922 - God keeps His elect drinking secretly the wine of the free.

3923 - They offer the cup to one who is veiled; perception apprehends nothing of it except the words.

3924 - He averts his face from their guidance because he does not see their gift with his eye.

3925 - If there were a passage from his ear to his throat, the hidden meaning of their admonition would have entered his inward parts.

3932 - If in His grace He beat the head of him, he will feel an eager desire for the red wine;

3933 - And if He does not beat him, he will remain, like the jurist, with his mouth closed against the potations and festivity of these kings.

3934 - The king said to his cup-bearer, “O well-conducted, why are you silent ? Give and put him in good humour.”

3935 - Over every mind there is a hidden Ruler, cunningly diverts from his purpose whomever He will.

3939 - He gave him several cuffs on the head, saying, “Take the cup !” The tormented man drained it in dread of blows.

3940 - He became tipsy and merry and smiling as a garden: he began to act like a boon-companion and tell ridiculous stories and make jokes.

3941 - He became brave and jolly and snapped his fingers: he went to the bathroom.

3942 - There he encountered a very beautiful slave girl who belonged to the royal household.

3943 - When he espied her, his mouth gaped, his reason fled and his body was ready for violence.

3944 - He immediately jumped on her.

3945 - The girl screamed and resisted but to no avail.

3962 - It became protracted, and how could he return ? The king’s expectancy too passed beyond bounds.

3963 - The king came to see what had happened: he beheld there the commotion of Calamity.

3964 - The jurist sprang up in terror and fled to the banquet-hall and hastily seized the wine-cup.

3965 - The king, full of fire and fury like Hell, was thirsting for the blood of the guilty pair.

3966 - When the jurist saw his enraged and wrathful countenance, which had become bitter and murderous as a cup of poison,

3967 - He shouted to his cup-bearer, “O solicitous, why do you sit dumbfounded ? Give and put him in good humour !”

3968 - The king laughed and said, “O sir, I am restored to my good humour: the girl is yours.

3969 - I am the king: my business is justice and bounty: I drink of that which my munificence bestowed on my friend.

3970 - How should I give friend and kinsman for food and drink what I would not drink as honey ?

3977 - Manfully restore yourself too to disposition: take the reason that meditates on fortitude as your guide.

3978 - When the guidance of fortitude becomes a wing for you, your spirit will soar to the zenith of the Throne and Footstool.

3979 - See, when fortitude became a Buraq for him, how it carried Mustafá up to the top of the spheres.

Story of Imra’u ’l-Qays, who was the king of the Arabs and exceedingly handsome: he was the Joseph of his time, and the Arab women were desperately in love with him, like Zalikha. He had the poetic genius— “Halt, let us weep in memory of a beloved and a dwelling-place.” Since all the women desired him with soul, one may well wonder what was the object of his love-songs and lamentations. Surely he knew that all these are copies of a picture which have been drawn on frames of earth. At last there came to this Imra’u ’l-Qays such a experience that in the middle of the night he fled from his kingdom and children and concealed himself in the garb of a dervish and wandered from that clime to another clime in search of Him who transcends all climes: “He chooses for His mercy whom He will”; and so forth.

3986 - Imra’u’l-Qays was weary of his empire: Love carried him away from the country of the Arabs,

3987 - So that he came and worked as a brick-maker at Tabuk. The king was told that a royal personage,

3988 - Imra’u ’l-Qays, having fallen a prey to Love, had come there and was making bricks by labour.

3989 - The king rose up and went to him at night and said to him, “O king of beauteous countenance,

3990 - You are the Joseph of the age. Two empires have become entirely subject to you— of the territories and, of Beauty.

3991 - Men are enslaved by your sword, while women are the chattels of your cloudless moon.

3992 - You will dwell with me, it will be my fortune: by union with you my soul will be made a hundred souls.

3993 - Both I and my kingdom are your to hold as your own, O you who in high aspiration have abandoned kingdoms !”

3994 - He reasoned with him for a long time, and he kept silence, suddenly he unveiled the mystery.

3995 - Think what of love and passion he whispered into his ear ! Immediately he made him a crazy wanderer like himself.

3996 - He took his hand and accompanied him: he too renounced his throne and belt.

3997 - These two kings went to distant lands: not once has Love committed this crime.

3998 - It is honey for the grown-up and milk for children: for every boat it is the last bale.

3999 - Besides these two, many kings, beyond number, have Love torn from their kingdoms and families.

4205 - My desire will be attained either by this going forth or through some other gateway by Heaven.”

Story of the person who dreamed that his hopes of opulence would be fulfilled in Cairo and that there was a treasure in a certain house in a certain quarter of that city. When he came to Cairo, someone said to him, “I have dreamed of a treasure in such and such a quarter and such and such a house in Baghdad”; and he named the quarter and house in which this person lived. The latter perceived, however, that the information concerning the treasure in Cairo had been given to him in order to make him realize that, he must not seek anywhere but in his own house, this treasure would really and truly be gained only in Cairo.

4206 - There was a man who inherited money and estates: he squandered all and was left destitute and miserable.

4209 - O such-and-such, you know not the value of your soul because God bountifully gave it to you for nothing.

4210 - His ready money went and his furniture and houses went: he was left (alone) like owls in the deserts.

4211 - He cried, “O Lord, You gave provision: the provision is gone: either give some provision or send death.”

4212 - When he became empty, he began to call unto God: he started the tune of “O Lord !” and “O Lord, protect me !”

4213 - Since the Prophet has said that the true believer is a lute, makes music at the time when it is empty,

4214 - As soon as it is filled, the minstrel lays it down - do not become full, for sweet is the touch of His hand.

4215 - Become empty and stay happily between two fingers, for “where” is intoxicated with the wine of “nowhere.”

4216 - Stubbornness departed and released the water from his eye: his tears watered the crops of devotion.

The reason why the answer to the true believer’s prayer is delayed.

4217 - Oh, how many a sincere moans in prayer, so that the smoke of his sincerity ascends to Heaven,

4218 - And from the lamentation of the sinful the perfume of the censer floats up beyond this lofty roof !

4219 - Then the angels beseech God piteously, saying, “O You who answer every prayer and O You whose protection is invoked,

4222 - God says, “It is not that he is despicable; the very deferment of the bounty is helping him.

4230 - When two persons, one of them a decrepit old man and the other a beardless, come to an admirer of handsome boys,

4231 - And both ask for bread, he will at once fetch the unleavened bread and bid the old man take it;

4232 - But how should he give bread to the other, by whose figure and cheeks he is pleased ? Nay, he will delay him.

4233 - And say to him, “Sit down a while, it will do no harm; for the new bread is baking in the house."

4234 - And when, after the work, the hot bread is brought to him, he will say to him, “Sit down, for halwá is coming.”

4235 - In this same fashion he is always detaining him and seeking covertly to make him his prey,

4236 - Saying, “I have some business to do with you: wait a moment, O beauty of the world !”

4237 - Know for sure that this is the reason why the true believers suffer disappointment in good or evil.

Returning to the Story of the person who was given a clue to the treasure at Cairo, and setting forth his supplication to God on account of his poverty.

4240 - He dreamed that he heard a Voice from heaven saying, “Your fortune will be found in Cairo;

4241 - Go to Cairo: there your affair will be set right. He has accepted your humble petition: He is the Object of hope.

4242 - In such-and-such a spot is a great treasure: you must go to Cairo in quest of it.

4243 - Listen, O wretched man, go without any delay from Baghdad to Cairo and the home of sugar-candy.”

4244 - When he departed from Baghdad to Cairo, at the sight of Cairo his courage was restored,

4245 - Hoping for the promise given by the heavenly Voice that he would find in Cairo the treasure to remove his trouble.

4246 - “In such and such a quarter and such and such a spot there is a buried treasure exceedingly rare and very choice.”

4247 - But of money for expenses, great or small, he had nothing left; and he was about to go and beg from the common folk,

4248 - But shame and honour held him back; he began to plant himself firmly on fortitude.

4249 - However, his soul fluttered on account of hunger: he saw no means of escape from foraging and begging.

4250 - “At nightfall,” he said, “I will slip out very quietly, in order that I may beg in the dark without feeling ashamed.

4251 - At night I will chant and bawl like a night-mendicant, that half a dáng may come to me from the roofs.”

4252 - Thus meditating, he went out into the street, and with these thoughts he wandered to and fro.

4253 - At one moment shame and dignity prevented him, at another moment hunger said to him, “Beg !”

4254 - Till a third part of the night was gone, one foot forward and one foot backward, “Shall I beg or shall I lie down to sleep with my lips dry ?”

4255 - Suddenly the night-patrol seized him and, unable to restrain his anger, beat him with fist and cudgel.

4265 - He saw him at such a time and gave him a sound drubbing and blows without number.

4266 - Shrieks and cries for mercy arose from the poor wretch: “Don’t strike ! Let me tell the truth about it all !”

4267 - He replied, “Look now, I will give you time: speak, that I may learn how you came out into the streets by night.

4268 - You do not belong to this place; you are a stranger and unknown: tell me truly what you are plotting.

4272 - After taking many oaths he replied, “I am not a housebreaker or cutpurse.

4273 - I am no thief and criminal: I am a stranger in Cairo, I belong to Baghdad.”

4274 - He related the story of his dream and the treasure of gold, and from his veracity the man’s heart expanded.

4275 - From his oaths he scented the truth: in him the combustion and the rue-seed were evident.

4276 - The heart is comforted by true words, just as a thirsty man is comforted by water,

4277 - Except the heart of one who is veiled and suffers from a malady, he cannot distinguish between a prophet and a dolt;

4280 - The night-patrol’s eye became a fountain with wetting tears, not from the dry words, nay, but from the fragrance in the heart.

4312 - He said, “You are not a thief and you are not a reprobate: you are a good man, but you are foolish and silly.

4313 - You make such a long journey, on a phantasy and dream: your intelligence has not the least spark of brightness.

4314 - I have dreamed many times, continuously, that there is a concealed treasure at Baghdad,

4315 - Buried in such-and-such a quarter and such-and-such a street” - the name, in fact, was that of the street where this sorrowful man lived.

4316 - “It is in so-and-so’s house: go and seek it!”— the enemy named the house and mentioned his name.

4317 - “I myself have often dreamed that there is a treasure in the dwelling-place at Baghdad.

4318 - I never left my home on account of this phantasy, you in consequence of a single dream come without thinking of the fatigue.

4322 - He said to himself, “The treasure is in my house: then why am I poverty-stricken and lamenting there ?

4323 - Living over the treasure, I have died of beggary because I am heedless and blind.”

4324 - At this good news he was intoxicated: his sorrow vanished, and without lips he chanted a hundred thousand praises to God.

4325 - He said, “My food depended on these blows: the Water of life was in my shop.

4326 - Begone, for I have met with a great piece of fortune, to confound the idea that I was destitute.

4327 - Deem me foolish or contemptible as you please: it is mine, say what you like.

4328 - Beyond doubt I have seen my wish: call me anything you please, O foul-mouthed one !

4329 - Call me sorrowful, O respected sir: in your view I am sorrowful, but in my view I am happy.

4330 - Alas, if the case had been reversed a rose-garden in your view and miserable in my own !”

4336 - He returned from Cairo to Baghdad, prostrating himself and bowing and giving praise and thanks.

4337 - All the way he was bewildered and intoxicated by this marvel, by the complete change as regards his daily bread and the method of seeking,

4338 - Saying, “Whence did He make me hopeful and whence did He shower money and profit upon me !

4384 - He was every step of the way, in contemplating this annulment of fixed purposes and ambitions.

4385 - He came home, he discovered the treasure: by Divine grace his fortune was restored.

Ya Ali Madad