Story of the King who enjoined his three sons, saying, “In this journey through my empire establish certain arrangements in such-and-such a place and appoint certain viceroys in such-and-such a place, but for God’s sake, for God’s sake, do not go to such-and-such a fortress and do not roam around it.”

3583 - There was a King, and the King had three sons: all three endowed with sagacity and discernment.

3584 - Each one more praise worthy than another in generosity and in battle and in exercising royal sway.

3585 - The princes, the delight of the King’s eye, stood together, like three candles, before the King,

How the princes, having bidden the King farewell, set out on a journey through their father’s empire, and how the King repeated his injunctions at the moment of farewell.

3630 - The three sons set out, in the fashion of travel, to their father’s possessions,

3631 - And to make a tour of his cities and fortresses for the purpose of regulating the administrative and economic conditions.

3632 - They kissed the King’s hand and bade him farewell; then the King, obeyed, said to them:

3633 - “Direct your course wherever your heart may lead you, go under the protection of God, waving your hands.

3634 - Except to one fortress, the name of which is ‘the robber of reason’: it makes the coat tight for wearers of the tiara.

3635 - For God’s sake, for God’s sake, keep far away from that castle adorned with pictures, and beware of the peril !

3636 - The front and back of its towers and its roof and floor are all images and decorations and pictures,

3637 - Like the chamber of Zalikha full of pictures in order that Joseph should look upon her willy-nilly.

3638 - Since Joseph would not look at her, she cunningly filled the room with portraits of herself,

3639 - So that, wherever the fair-cheeked looked, he might see her face without having the power to choose.

3640 - The peerless God has made the six directions a theatre for the display of His signs to the clairvoyant,

3641 - In order that, whatever animal or plant they look upon, they may feed on the meadows of Divine Beauty.

3642 - Hence He said to the company, "Wherever you turn, His Face is there."

3643 - If in thirst you drink some water from a cup, you are beholding God within the water.’

3644 - He that is not a lover sees in the water his own image, O man of insight;

3645 - Since the lover’s image has disappeared in Him, whom now should he behold in the water ? Tell !

3646 - Through the working of the Jealous One, they behold the beauty of God in the faces of the houris, like the moon in water.

3647 - His jealousy is against a lover and sincere; His jealousy is not against a devil and beast;

3649 - The Devil became a true believer’ is made manifest on the occasion when by His grace a Yazíd becomes a Bayazid.

3654 - If their father had not spoken these words and had not warned them against that fortress,

3655 - Their party would never have approached the fortress; their desire would never have inclined towards it;

3656 - For it was not well-known: it was exceedingly remote and aloof from the fortresses and the highways.

3657 - When he uttered that prohibition, their hearts were thrown by his speech into vain desire and into the quarter of phantasy,

3658 - And, because of this prohibition, a craving arose in their hearts to investigate the secret of that.

How the Sultan’s sons went to the forbidden fortress, inasmuch as man eagerly covets that which he is refused, “We rendered our service, but your evil nature could not buy the servant.” They trod all their father’s injunctions and counsels underfoot, so that they fell into the pit of tribulation, and their reproachful souls were saying to them, “Did not a warner come to you ?” while they, weeping and contrite, replied, “If we had been wont to listen or understand we should not have been among those who dwell in the flaming Fire.”

3699 - This discourse has no end. The party took their way to seek that castle.

3700 - They approached the tree of the forbidden fruit; they went forth from the file of the sincere.

3701 - Since they were made more ardent by their father’s prohibition and veto, they raised their heads towards that fortress.

3702 - In spite of the orders of the elect King to the fortress which is the destroyer of self-restraint and the robber of rationality.

3703 - Turning their backs on the day, they came in the dark night in defiance of counsel-bestowing Reason.

3704 - Into the beautiful fortress adorned with pictures, five gates to the sea and five to the land,

3705 - Five of those, like the senses, facing towards colour and perfume; five of them, like the interior senses, seeking the mystery.

3706 - By those thousands of pictures and designs and decorations they were made mightily restless to and fro.

3707 - Do not be intoxicated with these cups, which are forms, lest you become a carver of idols and an idolater.

3709 - Open your mouth wide to the Giver of the wine: when the wine comes, the cup will not be lacking.

3712 - Form is brought into existence by the Formless, just as smoke is produced by a fire.

3720 - The formless working sows a form, there grows up a body endowed with senses and a faculty,

3723 - If it be a form of mercy, it becomes flourishing; if it be a form of repulse, it becomes full of moans;

3729 - Happy folk standing on the edge of a roof, observe the shadow of each one on the ground.

3730 - The form of thought is on the lofty roof, while the action appears, like a shadow, on the pillars.

3731 - The action is on the pillars, while the thought is concealed; but the two are combined in the correlation of cause and effect.

3733 - The forms of man and woman and sport and sexual intercourse, their result at the time of sexual union distraction.

3734 - The form of bread and salt, which is a benefit, has as its result strength, which is formless.

3735 - On the battle-field the form of sword and shield has as its result a formless thing, i.e. victory.

3738 - These forms have their existence from the Formless: what means, then, their denial of Him who brought them into existence ?

3759 - Since all has been lost, they have gained all: through dwindling away they have sped towards the Whole.

How in the pavilion of the fortress adorned with pictures they saw a portrait of the daughter of the King of China and how all three lost their senses and fell into distraction and made inquiries, asking, “Whose portrait is this ?”

3760 - This topic is endless. The company espied a beauteous and majestic portrait.

3761 - The party had seen more beautiful than that, but at this one they were plunged in the deep sea,

3762 - Because opium came to them in this cup: the cups are visible, but the opium is unseen.

3763 - The fortress, the destroyer of reason, wrought its work: it cast them, all three, into the pit of tribulation.

3764 - Without a bow the arrow-like glances pierce the heart - mercy, mercy, O merciless one !

3765 - A stone image consumed the generations and kindled a fire in their religion and their hearts.

3766 - When it is spiritual, how must it be ! Its fascination changes at every moment.

3767 - Since love of the pictured form was stabbing the hearts of the princes like a spear-point,

3768 - Each was shedding tears, like a cloud, and gnawing his hands and crying, “Oh, alas !

3769 - Now we see the King saw at the beginning. How often did that peerless one adjure us ?”

3770 -The prophets have conferred a great obligation because they have made us aware of the end,

3774 - He is you, but not this “you”: that “you” which in the end is conscious of escape.

3786 - By sorrows they began to make inquiry, saying, “Who in the world, we wonder, is she of whom this is the portrait ?”

3787 - After much inquiry in travel, a Shaykh endowed with insight disclosed the mystery,

3788 - Not by way of the ear, but by inspiration from Reason: to him mysteries were unveiled.

3789 - He said, “This is the portrait of an object of envy to the Pleiades: this is the picture of the Princess of China.

3790 - She is hidden like the spirit and like the embryo: she is in a secret bower and palace.

3791 - Neither man nor woman is admitted to her: the King has concealed her on account of her fascinations.

3792 - The King has a jealousy for her name, so that not even a bird flies above her roof.”

3793 - Alas for the heart that such an insane passion has stricken: may no one feel a passion like this !

3794 - This is the retribution due to him, who sowed the seed of ignorance and held light and cheap that counsel,

3797 - Abandon your own cunning, O Amír: draw back your foot before the favour and gladly die.

3886 - What, then, is other than the present world ? The next world, which will take you away from here and be your guide.

How the three princes discussed the plan to adopt in view of what had occurred.

3887 - The three afflicted ones put their heads together: all three felt the same grief and pain and sorrow.

3888 - All three were comrades in one meditation and one passion; all three were sick with one disease and one malady.

3889 - At the time of silence all three had one thought; at the time of speech, too, all three had one argument.

3890 - At one moment they all were shedding tears and weeping blood on the dining-table of calamity;

3891 - At another moment all three, from the fire in their hearts, heaved burning sighs as a chafing-pan.

The discourse of the eldest brother

3892 - The eldest said, “O men of integrity were not we masculine in giving counsel to others ?

3893 - Whenever one of the retainers complained to us of affliction and poverty and fear and agitation,

3894 - We used to say, ‘do not bewail your hardships: be patient, for patience is the key to relief from pain.’

3901 - Now it is our turn. Why have we become distracted and gone under the chador like cowardly women ?”

How, after full discussion and debate, the princes set out for the province of China towards their beloved and the object, in order that they might be as near as possible to that object; although the way to union is barred, it is praiseworthy to approach as near as is possible.

3980 - They said this and immediately set out: O my friend, everything that was at that moment.

3981 - They chose fortitude and became true witnesses; then they set off towards the land of China.

3982 - They left their parents and kingdom, they took the way to the hidden beloved.

4000 - The souls of these three princes also were roaming around China in every direction, like birds picking up grain.

4001 - They dare not open their lips to utter the thoughts hidden, because it was a perilous and grave secret.

3907 - They were telling each other their secrets allusively in low tones with a hundred fears and precautions.

3908 - None but God was the confidant of their secret; their sighs were breathed to Heaven alone.

3909 - They were using certain mystical terms among themselves in order to convey information.

4021 - Zalikha had applied to Joseph the name of everything, from rue-seed to aloes wood.

4022 - She concealed his name in names and made the inner meaning thereof known to confidants.

4023 - When she said, “The wax is softened by the fire,” this meant, “My beloved is very fond of me.”

4024 - And if she said, “Look, the moon is risen”; or if she said, “The willow-bough is green.”

4025 - Or if she said, “The leaves are quivering mightily”; or if she said, “The rue-seed is burning merrily,”

4026 - Or if she said, “The rose has told her secret to the nightingale”; or if she said, “The king has disclosed his passion for Shahnáz,”

4027 - Or if she said, “How auspicious is Fortune !” or if she said, “Give the furniture a good dusting”

4028 - Or if she said, “The water-carrier has brought the water”; or if she said, “The sun is risen”

4029 - Or if she said, “Last night they cooked a pot full of food” or “The vegetables are cooked to perfection”

4030 - Or if she said, “The loaves have no salt”; or if she said, “The heavenly sphere is going round in the contrary direction”

4031 - Or if she said, “My head aches”; or if she said, “My headache is better”

4032 - If she praised, it was his caresses; and if she blamed, it was separation from him.

4033 - If she piled up a hundred thousand names, her meaning and intention was always Joseph.

4034 - Were she hungry, as soon as she spoke his name she would be filled and intoxicated by his cup.

4053 - The seed is lost: then does it become a fig-tree. This is “I did not give the money till you died.”

How, after they had stayed in hiding and tarried patiently for a long while in the capital of China, where the Emperor was enthroned, the eldest lost patience and said, “Farewell ! I will go and present myself to the King. Either my feet will bring me to the object of my quest, or I will lose my head there. as my heart”— “Either my feet will bring me to the object of my quest and desire, or I will give away my head there as my heart”— and how the good advice of his brothers was of no avail. “O you that chide those in love, let them alone ! How should you direct a band which God has led astray ?” And so forth.

4054 - The eldest said, “O my brother, from waiting this soul of mine is on the verge.

4055 - I have become reckless, I can endure no more: this endurance has set me on fire.

4056 - My strength is exhausted by this fortitude: my plight is a warning to lovers.

4057 - I am weary of my life in separation: it is hypocrisy to be alive in separation.

4058 - How long will the anguish of separation from her be killing me ? Cut off my head, in order that Love may give me a head.

4059 - My religion is, to be alive by Love: life from this soul and head is a disgrace to me.

4060 - The sword sweeps the dust away from the lover’s soul, because the sword is a wiper-out of sins.

How the brothers repeated their advice to eldest, and how he was unable to endure it and ran away from them and went off, frenzied and beside himself, and rushed into the King’s audience-chamber without asking permission; but from excess of passionate love, not from disrespect and recklessness, etc.

4386 - The two said to him, “In our souls are answers, like stars in the sky.

4387 - Unless we speak, the game will not come out right; and if we speak, your heart will be grieved.

4388 - We are like frogs in the water: it is painful to speak, while the result of silence is suffocation and illness.

4389 - If we speak not, friendship has no light; and if we speak, it is without leave.”

4390 - Straightway he sprang up, crying, “Farewell, O kinsmen: truly this world and all therein is but a passing enjoyment,”

4391 - And darted away like an arrow from the bow, so that there was no opportunity to speak at that time.

4392 - He came intoxicated into the presence of the King of China and at once kissed the earth frenziedly.

4393 - To the King their feelings, their passion and agitation, were open in every detail from first to last.

4398 - That exalted was in the midst of their souls, but he had purposely feigned to be unfamiliar.

4407 - Then the announcer opened his lips to describe his plight in the presence of the elect King.

4408 - He said, “O King, he is fallen a prey to your beneficence: show kingly favour, for he has no means of escape.

4409 - He has clutched the saddle-strap of this empire: stroke his distraught head with your hand !”

4410 - The King replied, “This youth will obtain every high dignity and sovereignty that he seeks.

4411 - I will bestow on him here twenty times as many kingdoms as he has relinquished, and myself into the bargain.”

4601 - In this fashion he remained with this King for a long while, his heart kabab and his soul laid on the tray.

4602 - He said, “The King beheads every one once, I am sacrificed anew by the King at every instant.

4614 - Both Hell and Paradise are trembling in fear of him: neither the one nor the other feels safe from him.

4617 - The form of the Beloved vanished from him: he died and was united with the reality of the Beloved.

The death of the eldest prince, and how the middle brother came to his funeral - for the youngest was confined to his bed by illness; and how the King treated the middle brother with great affection, so that he too was crippled by his kindness; he remained with the King, and a hundred thousand spoils, from the unseen and visible worlds, were conferred upon him by the fortune and favour of the King; with an exposition of some part thereof.

4634 - The youngest was ill, and the middle one came alone to the funeral of the eldest.

4635 - The King espied him, he said with a purpose, “Who is this ? - for he is of that sea, and he too is a fish.”

4636 - Then the announcer said, “He is a son of the same father: this brother is younger than that brother.”

4637 - The King greeted him affectionately, saying, “You are a keepsake”; and by this enquiry made him too his prey.

4638 - In consequence of the kindness shown by the King, that wretched man, roasted, found in his body a soul other than the soul.

4639 - He felt within his heart a sublime emotion which the Sufi does not experience during a hundred chilas.

4640 - Court-yard and wall and mountain woven of stone seemed to split open before him like a laughing pomegranate.

4701 - But if you become upright in the Unseen, you are owner of the two worlds and a magistrate over yourself.

4735 - There is no room for a child beside men: how should God let a child sit with men ?

4736 - If fruit become old, so long as it is immature and not ripe it is called ghúra (unripe grapes).

4737 - Though immature and sour reach the age of a hundred years, he is a child and unripe in the opinion of every sagacious person.

4738 - Though his hair and beard be white, he is still in the childish state of fear and hope,

4742 - Our Khaqan has made a perpetual feast: He is always pulling our ears, “Do not lose hope !”

4743 - Although we are in the ditch by this despair, let us go dancing along since He has invited us.

4749 - If the brick be of gold it must be torn away, since the brick is the price paid for inspiration and light.

4750 - In order to remove the shadow the mountain is razed to the ground: It is a small matter to fall to pieces for the sake of this light (Noor).

4755 - This earth is like a cradle for babes: it cramps the movements of grownup men.

4756 - On account of the babes God has called the earth a cradle, and He has bestowed milk on the babes in their cradle.

4757 - The house is crowded with these cradles: let the babes grow up quickly, O King !

4758 - O cradle, do not incommode the house, so that the grown-up man can move freely.

4760 - His moon-like soul was feeding on the light of the King’s soul as the moon on the sun,

4761 - And the spiritual ration from the peerless King was arriving in his intoxicated soul at every moment.

4763 - He felt self-sufficient within himself, and from self-sufficiency emerged a feeling of insolent pride.

4764 - “Am not I,” said he, “both a king and a king’s son ? How have I let this King take control of me ?

4772 - The King’s heart was pained by his thoughts and the ingratitude for his virgin munificence.

4773 - He said, “Please, O base ill-mannered fellow was this bounty deserved ? Marvellous !

4774 - How I have dealt with you in this precious treasure ! How you have dealt with me in your mean-spiritedness !

4775 - I have put in your bosom a moon that will never set till the Day of Reckoning,

4776 - And in requital for that gift of pure light you have thrown thorns and earth in my eye.

4778 - Pangs of jealousy arose in the King: the reflection of the King’s pangs entered into him.

4789 - In your greed for a grain of wheat you have chosen the trap, and every grain of its wheat has become a scorpion to you.

4790 - The vain fancy of egoism came into your head: behold a shackle weighing fifty mann on your foot !”

4791 - In this fashion was he mourning for his soul, saying, “Why did I become the antagonist of my sovereign ?”

4792 - He came to himself and asked pardon of God, and with his repentance he combined something else.

Returning to the Story of the prince who was smitten by a blow from the heart of the King and departed from this world before he was fully endowed with the other excellences

4865 - Abridge the tale: after a year the indignation of that jealous one brought him to the grave.

4866 - When the King emerged from the state of self-effacement into consciousness, his martial eye had wrought that bloodshed.

4867 - When the peerless looked at his quiver: he perceived that one arrow was missing from his quiver.

4868 - He said “Where is that arrow ?” and requested God. He replied, “In his throat, for it is by your arrow.”

4869 - The King, whose heart was like an ocean, pardoned him; but, alas, the arrow had struck a vital spot.

4870 - He was slain, and the King wept in mourning for him, he is all: he is both the slayer and the next of kin;

4871 - For if he is not both, then he is not all; he is both the slayer of people and a mourner.

4872 - The pale-cheeked martyr was thanking that it had smitten his body and had not smitten that which is real.

4873 - The visible body is doomed to go at last that which is real shall live rejoicing forever.

4874 - If that punishment was inflicted, yet it fell only on the skin: the lover went unscathed to the Beloved.

4875 - Although he laid hold of the Emperor’s saddle-strap, in the end he was admitted by the eye whose glances kill.

4876 - And the third was the laziest of the three: he won completely - the form as well as the reality.

Ya Ali Madad