Story of the three travellers, a Moslem, a Christian, and a Jew, who obtained some food at a hostelry. The Christian and the Jew had already eaten their fill, so they said, “Let us eat this food tomorrow.” The Moslem was fasting, and he remained hungry because he was overpowered.

2376 - Here listen to a story, O son, in order that you may not suffer affliction in talent.

2377 - As it happened, a Jew and a true believer and a Christian travelled together on a journey.

2378 - A true believer travelled along with two miscreants, like reason with a carnal soul and Devil.

2379 - In travel the man of Merv and the man of Rayy meet one another as companions on the road and at table.

2395 - When these three fellow-travellers arrived at a certain hostelry, a man of fortune brought them halwá as a gift.

2396 - A benefactor brought to the three strangers halwá from the kitchen of "Lo, I am near."

2397 - One who had expectation of the reward brought warm bread and a dish of halwá made with honey.

2398 - Intelligence and culture are characteristic of townsmen; hospitality and entertainment are characteristic of tent-dwellers.

2399 - The Merciful has implanted hospitality to strangers and entertainment in the villagers.

2400 - Every day in the villages there is a new guest who has none to help him except God.

2401 - Every night in the villages are new-comers who have no refuge there save God.

2402 - The two aliens were surfeited with food and suffering from indigestion; the true believer, as it happened, was fasting day.

2403 - At the evening prayer, when the halwá arrived, the true believer was reduced to extreme hunger.

2404 - The two said, “We have eaten our fill: let us put it away to-night and eat it tomorrow.

2405 - To-night let us practise self-denial and refrain from food; let us hide the dainty for tomorrow.”

2406 - The true believer said, “Let this be eaten tonight; let us put away self-denial till tomorrow.

2407 - Then they said to him, “Your purpose in this wisdom-mongering is that you may eat it by yourself.”

2408 - O my friends,” said he, “are not we three persons ? Since disagreement has occurred, let us share.

2409 - Let him who wishes take his own share to his heart; let him who wishes put his share in hiding.”

2410 - The two said to him, “Abandon sharing: give ear to ‘The sharer is in Hell-fire’ from the Traditions.”

2411 - He replied, “The sharer is he that has shared himself between sensuality and God.”

2412 - You are God’s property and His share entirely: you give the share to another, you are a dualist.

2413 - This lion would have prevailed over the curs, if it had not been the turn of those evil-natured ones.

2414 - It was their intention that the Moslem should suffer pain and pass the night in want of food.

2415 - He was overpowered: he said, with resignation and acquiescence, “My friends, I hear and obey.”

2416 - So they slept that night, and in the morning they rose and dressed themselves,

2417 - And washed their faces and mouths; and each one had a method and practice in his devotions.

2418 - For a while each one applied himself to his devotions, seeking favour from God.

2419 - True believer and Christian, Jew and Guebre and Magi— the faces of them all are towards that mighty Sultan.

2420 - Nay, stone and earth and mountain and water have their invisible recourse to God.

2421 - This topic is infinite. At that time the three companions looked on one another friendlily,

2422 - And one said, “Let each relate what he dreamed last night.

2423 - Let him who had the best dream eat this: let the most excellent carry off the share of every one that is excelled.”

2424 - He who mounts highest in reason— his eating is the eating of all.

2425 - His luminous spirit is supreme: it is enough for the rest of them to tend him.

2426 - Since those endowed with reason endure forever, in reality this world is enduring forever.

2427 - Then the Jew related his dream whither his spirit had wandered during the night.

2428 - He said, “Moses met me on the way, ‘the cat sees a fat sheep’s tail in her dreams.’

2429 - I followed Moses to Mount Sinai: in the Light all three of us vanished.

2430 - All three shadows disappeared in the Sun; after that, there came from the Light an opening of the door.

2431 - From the heart of that Light another Light sprang up, and then the second quickly sought to transcend it.

2432 - Both I and Moses and also Mount Sinai, we were lost, all three, in that effulgence of the Light.

2433 - After that, I saw the mountain break into three pieces when the Light of God surged upon it.

2434 - When the Attribute of Majesty was revealed to it, it burst asunder in every direction.

2435 - One piece of the mountain fell towards the sea, and the water bitter as poison was made sweet.

2436 - One piece thereof sank into the earth, and a medicinal spring of running water gushed forth,

2437 - So that its water became a cure for all the sick by the blessedness of the goodly revelation.

2438 - The other piece flew at once to the neighbourhood of the Ka‘ba where ‘Arafat was.

2439 - When I came back to myself out of that swoon, Sinai was in its place, neither greater nor less;

2440 - But under the foot of Moses it was melting like ice: no spur or peak of it remained.

2441 - The mountain was levelled to the earth by terror: it was turned upside down by that awful Majesty.

2442 - After that scattering I came to myself again and saw that Sinai and Moses were unchanged,

2443 - And that the desert skirting the mountain was filled from end to end with people resembling Moses in their faces.

2444 - Their mantles were like his staff and mantle: all were speeding joyously towards Sinai.

2445 - All had lifted their hands in prayer and struck up together the tune of let me see You.

2446 - Again, as soon as the trance departed from me, the form of each one seemed to me to be diverse.

2447 - They were the prophets endowed with love: the unity of the prophets was apprehended by me.

2448 - Again, I beheld some mighty angels: their outward form was of bodies of snow;

2449 - And another circle of angels asking help: their outward form was wholly of fire.”

2450 - On this wise did the Jew tell: there is many a Jew whose end was praiseworthy.

2451 - Do not regard any infidel with contempt, for there may be hope of his dying a Moslem.

2452 - What knowledge have you of the close of his life that you should once avert your face from him ?

2453 - Afterwards the Christian began to speak, saying, “The Messiah appeared to me in my dream.

2454 - I went with him to the Fourth Heaven, the centre and abode of the sun of this world.

2455 - Truly, the marvels of the citadels of Heaven have no relation to the wonders of the world.

2456 - Everyone knows, O pride of the sons, that the artifice of the celestial sphere exceeds the earth.”

Story of the camel and the ox and the ram who found a bunch of grass on the road, and each said, “I will eat it.”

2457 - Whilst a camel, ox, and ram were going along, they found a bunch of grass in front of the road.

2458 - The ram said, “If we divide this, certainly none of us will get his fill of it;

2459 - But whichever of us has lived longest has the best right to this fodder: let him eat;

2460 - For to give the foremost place to the seniors has come from Mustafá among the practices observed by him,

2461 - Although, at this time when vile men hold sway, the vulgar put forward the elders on two occasions,

2462 - Either in food that is burning hot, or on a bridge that is by cracks in a state of ruin.

2463 - The vulgar do not pay homage to a venerable Shaykh and leader without some mischievous idea associated.

2464 - This is their good: what must their evil be ? Distinguish their foulness from their fairness.”

Parable

2465 - A king was going to the congregational mosque, and the marshals and mace-bearers were beating the people off.

2466 - The wielder of the stick would break the head of one and tear to bits the shirt of another.

2467 - A poor wretch amidst the throng received ten blows with the stick without any offence. “Begone,” they cried, “get out of the way !”

2468 - Dripping blood, he turned his face to the king and said, “Behold the manifest iniquity: why ask of that which is hidden ?

2469 - This is your good: you are going to the mosque; what must your evil and burden be, O misguided one ?”

2470 - The Pír never hears a salaam from a base fellow without being exceedingly tormented by him in the end.

2471 - If a wolf catch a saint, it is better than that the saint should be caught by the wicked carnal soul,

2472 - Because, though the wolf does great violence, yet it has not the same knowledge and craft and cunning;

2473 - Else how should it fall into the trap ? Cunning is complete in man.

2474 - The ram said to the ox and the camel, “O comrades, since such a chance has come to us,

2475 - Let each declare the date of his life: the oldest has the best right, let the others suffer in silence.

2476 - In those times,” said the ram, my pasturage was with the ram that was sacrificed for Ismail.”

2477 - The ox said, “I am the advanced in years, coupled with the ox that Adam yoked.

2478 - I am the yoke-fellow of the ox with which Adam, the forefather of mankind, used to plough the earth in sowing.”

2479 - When the camel heard the ox and the ram he was amazed: he lowered his head and picked up that.

2480 - Promptly, without any palaver, the Bactrian camel raised the bunch of fresh barley in the air,

2481 - Saying, “I, in sooth, need no chronology, since I have such a body and high neck.

2482 - Indeed everyone knows, O father’s darling, that I am not smaller than you.

2483 - Whoever is one of those possessed of intelligence knows this, that my nature is superior to yours.”

2484 - “All know that this lofty heaven is a hundred times as great as this low earth.

2485 - How can the wide expanse of the celestial domains be compared with the character of the terrestrial regions ?”

How the Moslem in reply told his companions, the Jew and the Christian, what he had seen, and how they were disappointed.

2486 - Then the Moslem said, “O my friends, Mustafá came to me, my sovereign,

2487 - And said to me, ‘that one has sped to Sinai with him to whom God spoke, and has played the game of love;

2488 - And the other has been carried by Jesus, the Lord of happy star, to the zenith of the Fourth Heaven.

2489 - Arise, O you who have been left behind and have suffered injury, at least eat up the sweetmeat and comfit !

2490 - Those (two) talented and accomplished men have pushed forward and have read the book of fortune and honour.

2491 - Those two eminent men have attained to their eminence and because of their talents have mingled with the angels.

2492 - Listen, O foolish simpleton who have been left behind, jump up and seat yourself beside the bowl of halwá !’”

2493 - Thereupon they said to him, “Then, you greedy fellow, have you made a meal of the halwá and khabís ? Oh, an astonishing thing !”

2494 - He replied, “When that sovereign who is obeyed gave the order, who was I that I should resist it ?

2495 - Will you, Jew, rebel against the command of Moses if he summons you in a fair cause or a foul ?

2496 - Can you, Christian, ever spurn the command of Christ for good or evil ?

2497 - How, should I rebel against the Glory of the prophets ? I have eaten the halwá and now I am happy.”

2498 - Then they said to him, “By God, you have dreamed a true dream, and it is better than a hundred dreams of ours.

2499 - Your dreaming is waking, O gleeful one, for its effect is made evident by waking.”

2500 - Abandon eminence and energy and skill: what matters is service and a goodly disposition.

2501 - For this God brought us forth: “I did not create mankind except to serve Me.”

2502 - How did that knowledge profit Sámirí, whom the skill banished from God’s door ?

2503 - What did Qárún gain by his alchemy ? See how the earth bore him down to its abyss.

2504 - What, after all, did Bu ’l-Hakam get from knowledge ? On account of his unbelief he went headlong into Hell.

2505 - Know that knowledge consists in seeing fire plainly, not in prating that smoke is evidence of fire.

2406 - O you whose evidence in the eyes of the Sage is really more stinking than the evidence of the physician,

2407 - Since you have no evidence but this, O son, eat dung and inspect urine !

2408 - O you whose evidence is like the staff in your hand indicate that you suffer from blindness,

2409 - Noise and pompous talk and assumption of authority, “I cannot see: excuse me.”

2626 - Since the Hand of God has made the Qibla manifest, henceforth deem searching to be disallowed.

2628 - If you forget this Qibla for one moment, you will become in thrall to every worthless qibla.

2627 - Listen; avert your face and head from searching, now that the Destination and Dwelling-place has come into view.

Ya Ali Madad