In Book 4 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, Queen Bilqis's response to Prophet Solomon's divine summons illustrates the transformative power of spiritual love, alongside the stubbornness of residual worldly attachments. Resolving to leave her kingdom for the spiritual path, Bilqis experiences a profound shift in perception: her immense wealth, pampered servants, and beautiful gardens suddenly appear to her as 'rotted onions' and a 'refuse heap.' Rumi explains that the dominion of divine love makes mere worldly beauty seem ugly by comparison. However, despite abandoning her vast riches, Bilqis retains a singular, painful attachment to her magnificent throne. Through spiritual insight—described as a path opened 'from his heart to her heart'—Solomon perceives her secret grief. He recognizes that while her soul has begun its journey toward divine Unity, the complete dissolution of her final worldly attachment will require time and deeper spiritual realization.

Bilqis's Abandonment of Her Kingdom and Attachment to the Throne in the Masnavi

In Book 2 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, Queen Bilqis's reception of Prophet Solomon's message delivered by the hoopoe illustrates the crucial distinction between sensory perception (hiss) and spiritual insight (dil or aql). While a purely physical gaze sees only a humble, small bird, Bilqis's spiritual intelligence allows her to recognize the majestic, cosmic reality (the Anqa) within the hoopoe's form. Rumi uses her respectful reception of the letter as a model of true discernment, contrasting her inner vision with the spiritual blindness of those who judge prophets solely by their outward human appearance.

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## Original content
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رحمت صد تو بر آن بلقیس باد 
که خدایش عقل صد مرده بداد
هدهدی نامه بیاورد و نشان 
از سلیمان چند حرفی با بیان
خواند او آن نکته‌های با شمول 
با حقارت ننگرید اندر رسول
جسم هدهد دید و جان عنقاش دید 
حس چو کفی دید و دل دریاش دید
عقل با حس زین طلسمات دو رنگ 
چون محمد با ابوجهلان به جنگ
کافران دیدند احمد را بشر 
چون ندیدند از وی انشق القمر
خاک زن در دیدهٔ حس‌بین خویش 
دیدهٔ حس دشمن عقلست و کیش
دیدهٔ حس را خدا اعماش خواند 
بت‌پرستش گفت و ضد ماش خواند
زانک او کف دید و دریا را ندید 
زانک حالی دید و فردا را ندید
خواجهٔ فردا و حالی پیش او 
او نمی‌بیند ز گنجی جز تسو
ذره‌ای زان آفتاب آرد پیام 
آفتاب آن ذره را گردد غلام
قطره‌ای کز بحر وحدت شد سفیر 
هفت بحر آن قطره را باشد اسیر
گر کف خاکی شود چالاک او 
پیش خاکش سر نهد افلاک او
خاک آدم چونک شد چالاک حق 
پیش خاکش سر نهند املاک حق
السماء انشقت آخر از چه بود 
از یکی چشمی که خاکیی گشود
خاک از دردی نشیند زیر آب 
خاک بین کز عرش بگذشت از شتاب
آن لطافت پس بدان کز آب نیست 
جز عطای مبدع وهاب نیست
گر کند سفلی هوا و نار را 
ور ز گل او بگذراند خار را
حاکمست و یفعل الله ما یشا 
کو ز عین درد انگیزد دوا
گر هوا و نار را سفلی کند 
تیرگی و دردی و ثفلی کند
ور زمین و آب را علوی کند 
راه گردون را به پا مطوی کند
پس یقین شد که تعز من تشا 
خاکیی را گفت پرها بر گشا
آتشی را گفت رو ابلیس شو 
زیر هفتم خاک با تلبیس شو
آدم خاکی برو تو بر سها 
ای بلیس آتشی رو تا ثری
چار طبع و علت اولی نیم 
در تصرف دایما من باقیم
کار من بی علتست و مستقیم 
هست تقدیرم نه علت ای سقیم
عادت خود را بگردانم بوقت 
این غبار از پیش بنشانم بوقت
بحر را گویم که هین پر نار شو 
گویم آتش را که رو گلزار شو
کوه را گویم سبک شو همچو پشم 
چرخ را گویم فرو در پیش چشم
گویم ای خورشید مقرون شو به ماه 
هر دو را سازم چو دو ابر سیاه
چشمهٔ خورشید را سازیم خشک 
چشمهٔ خون را بفن سازیم مشک
آفتاب و مه چو دو گاو سیاه 
یوغ بر گردن ببنددشان اله

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## English translation
A hundred mercies be upon that Bilqis, for God gave her the intellect of a hundred men. A hoopoe brought a letter and a sign, a few clearly expressed words from Solomon. She read those all-embracing points and did not look contemptuously at the messenger. She saw the hoopoe's body, yet saw its soul as an Anqa; she saw sense as foam and its heart as the sea.

Reason, with sense, amid these two-colored spells, is at war like Muhammad with the Abu Jahls. The unbelievers saw Ahmad as a human being, for they did not see from him the splitting of the moon. Throw dust into your sense-seeing eye: the eye of sense is the enemy of reason and faith. God called the eye of sense blind, called it idol-worshipping and opposed to us, because it saw the foam and did not see the sea, because it saw the present moment and did not see tomorrow. The lord of tomorrow and of the present stands before it, yet it sees from a treasure only a penny.

If a mote brings a message from that Sun, the Sun becomes servant to that mote. A drop that becomes an envoy from the ocean of Unity holds seven seas captive. If a handful of dust is made nimble by Him, the heavens bow their heads before its dust. When Adam's dust became nimble through the Truth, the angels of the Truth bowed their heads before his dust. As for 'the heaven was split,' what finally caused it? One eye that a dusty being opened.

Earth, as sediment, settles beneath water; but behold dust that, through swiftness, passed beyond the Throne. Know, then, that this subtlety is not from water; it is nothing but the gift of the Originator, the All-Giving.

Whether He makes air and fire low, or makes the thorn pass beyond the rose: He is sovereign, and God does what He wills, He who brings forth medicine from the very source of pain. If He makes air and fire lowly, He makes them dark, turbid, and heavy; and if He makes earth and water lofty, He folds the path of the heavens beneath their feet.

Thus it became certain that 'You exalt whom You will': to a dusty one He said, Open your wings. To a fiery one He said, Go, become Iblis; go beneath the seventh earth with deceit. O dusty Adam, go up to Suha; O fiery Iblis, go down to Thara.

I am not the four natures and the first cause; I remain forever in command. My work is without cause and direct; it is My decree, not a cause, O sick one. At times I change My own habit; at times I set this dust down out of the way. I say to the sea, Come, be full of fire; I say to fire, Go, become a rose garden. I say to the mountain, Become light as wool; I say to the heavens, Come down before the eye. I say, O sun, be joined to the moon; I make both like two black clouds. I dry up the fountain of the sun; by art I make the fountain of blood into musk. The sun and moon, like two black oxen, God will bind a yoke around their necks.

دفتر دوم - بخش ۳۳ - عکس تعظیم پیغام سلیمان در دل بلقیس از صورت حقیر هدهد / Book Two - Section 33 - The Reflection of the Reverence for Solomon's Message in the Heart of Bilqis from the Humble Form of the Hoopoe

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