Original content

English translation

He said, 'The command has come: go; you have respite. I have returned to my own place; you are delivered from us.' He went, and the dragon followed behind, like a skilled, loving hunting dog. Like a hunting dog wagging its tail, it made stone into sand beneath its foot. It drew stone and iron in with its breath; it openly chewed iron into pieces. It raised itself in the air above the tower, so that Romans and Georgians fled in rout from it. It cast foam from its mouth like a camel; whoever was struck by a drop became leprous. The gnashing of its teeth broke hearts; the souls of black lions were lost from their hands. When that chosen one reached his people, he took hold of its jaw, and it again became a staff. He leaned on it and said, 'How strange: before us, sun, and before the enemy, night. How strange that this army does not see a world full of the forenoon sun. Open eye, open ear, and this intelligence: I am bewildered at God's eye-binding. I am bewildered by them, and they by me; from spring they are thorns, and I am jasmine. I brought many cups of pure wine before them; before this group its water became stone. I tied a bouquet and brought it before them; every flower became a thorn, and sweetness a sting. That portion belongs to souls free of self; since they are with self, how can it become manifest? A waking sleeper is needed before us, so that while awake he may see dreams. People's thinking has become the enemy of this sweet sleep; lest his thought fall asleep, it has seized his throat. Bewilderment is needed to sweep thought away; bewilderment has consumed thought and remembrance. Whoever is more complete in spiritual skill is later in meaning though earlier in form. He said, "We are returning," and return is like this: the flock turns back and goes home. When the flock turns back from the watering place, the goat that had led falls behind. The lame goat that was last comes forward; the return makes scowling faces laugh. Did these people become lame at random? They gave away pride and bought disgrace. Broken-footed, these people go on pilgrimage; from hardship there is a hidden road to relief. This group washed their hearts of knowledges, because this knowledge does not know that road. A knowledge is needed whose root is from that side, for every branch leads to its root. How can any feather fly across the breadth of the sea until "from Us" carries it to ladunni knowledge? So why teach a man a knowledge from which the breast must later be cleansed? Therefore do not seek precedence from this side; be lame. At the time of return, be the one who leads. Be "the last are the first," O subtle one; on the tree the fresh fruit is prior. Although the fruit comes last into existence, it is first because it was the intended end. Like the angels, say, "We have no knowledge," so that "You have taught us" may take your hand. If in this school you do not know the alphabet, like Ahmad you will fly by the light of discernment. If you are not renowned in the lands, you are not lost: God knows the servants best. In the ruin that is not famous, there is protection for a treasury of gold. Who would place treasure in a famous place? For this reason relief came beneath suffering. The mind brings many objections here, but a good mount breaks apart the objections. His love is a fire that burns objections; daylight sweeps away every fantasy. Seek the answer from that same side, O approved one, for this question came to you from that side. The cornerless corner of the heart is a royal road; the radiance of "neither eastern nor western" is from a moon. You, from this side and that side, are like a beggar: O you who seek meaning, why do you seek an echo? Seek from that side, for at the time of your pain you bend double in the invocation, "O my Lord." At the time of pain and death you incline toward that side; when your pain is gone, why do you become foreign-tongued? In the time of affliction you become one who says "Allah"; when affliction is gone you say, "Where is the road?" This is because whoever knows the Real without doubt remains constantly in that state. But one whose veil lies in reason and supposition is sometimes covered and sometimes tears his collar. The partial intellect is sometimes victorious and sometimes overthrown; the universal intellect is secure from mortal doubt. Sell intellect and buy the craft of bewilderment; turn toward humility, not Bukhara, my son. Why have we so steeped ourselves in speech that, because of the story, we ourselves have become a story? I become nonexistence and legend in longing, so that I may find transformation among those who prostrate. For the person of spiritual work this is not a story; it is a description of state and the presence of the Companion of the Cave. Those 'tales of the ancients' which the rebel called the words of the Qur'an were marks of hypocrisy. In the placeless realm where the light of God is, where are past, future, and present? Its past and future are relative to you; both are one thing, though you suppose them two. One body is father to him and son to us; the roof is below Zayd and above Amr. The relation of below and above came from those two people; toward itself the roof is only one thing. This speech is not the same as that reality; it is an analogy. The new meaning falls short in old letters. Since there is no bank of the stream, close the water-skin's mouth; without lip or shore, this sea of sugar is in hand.'