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He said, "No, by God, by the Great God, the Possessor of the Kingdom, and by the Compassionate, the Merciful,\nThat God who sent the prophets, not out of need, but through grace and majesty;\nThat Lord who from lowly dust created glorious horsemen;\nHe purified them from the temperament of earthly beings, He made them surpass the zenith of the celestial ones;\nHe took from fire and made pure light, and then He surpassed all lights;\nThat flash of lightning which shone upon the spirits, so that Adam gained knowledge from that light;\nThat which grew from Adam and Seth's hand gathered; then Adam made him his successor when he saw that;\nNoah, who partook of that jewel, was pouring pearls in the desire of the sea of the soul;\nThe soul of Abraham, made immense by those lights, went without fear into the flames of fire;\nWhen Ishmael fell into His stream, he laid his head before His bright dagger;\nThe soul of David became warm from its ray, iron became soft in his weaving hands;\nWhen Solomon was suckling its union, the demon became his submissive and obedient slave;\nWhen Jacob bowed his head to destiny, his eye brightened from the scent of his son;\nWhen moon-faced Joseph saw that sun, he became so awakened in interpreting dreams;\nWhen the staff drank water from Moses' hand, it made Pharaoh's kingdom a single morsel;\nWhen Jesus, son of Mary, found its ladder, he hastened to the top of the fourth dome;\nWhen Muhammad found that kingdom and bliss, he split the disk of the moon in two in an instant;\nWhen Abu Bakr became the sign of divine guidance, he became a companion and truthful one to such a King;\nWhen Umar became enamored with that Beloved, he became a discriminator between truth and falsehood like the heart;\nWhen Uthman became the eye of that vision, the light was overflowing and he became the Possessor of Two Lights;\nWhen Murtada became scattered with pearls from its face, he became the Lion of God in the meadow of the soul;\nWhen Junayd saw that assistance from His army, his spiritual stations exceeded all number;\nBayazid saw the way in His increase, he heard the title 'Pole of the Gnostics' from the Truth;\nWhen Karkhi became the guard of His fortress, he became the deputy of love and breathed divinely;\nThe son of Adham drove his steed joyfully in that direction, he became the sultan of the sultans of justice;\nAnd Shaqiq, from traversing that wondrous path, became sun-minded and sharp-sighted;\nA hundred thousand hidden kings are holding their heads high on that side of the world;\nTheir names remained hidden due to God's jealousy, so that every beggar would not recite their names;\nBy the truth of that light and the truth of the luminous ones, who are like fishes in that sea;\nIf I call it the sea of the soul or the soul of the sea, it is not worthy; I seek a new name for it;\nBy the truth of that essence from which 'this' and 'that' derive, compared to which all kernels are but shells;\nThat the attributes of my fellow-servant and friend are a hundred times more than this speech of mine.\nWhat I know of the qualities of that companion, you would not believe; what should I say, O Generous One?"\nThe King said, "Now speak of your own; how long will you speak of the 'this' and 'that' of his?\nWhat do you have and what have you achieved? What have you brought up from the bottom of the sea?\nOn the day of death, this sense of yours will be void; do you have the light of the soul to be the heart's companion?\nIn the grave, when dust fills this eye, is there that which illuminates the tomb?\nAt that time when your hands and feet are torn away, do you have wings and feathers for the soul to fly?\nAt that time when this animal soul does not remain, you must set the eternal soul in its place.\nThe condition is not merely 'doing' good, but 'bringing' this good to the Presence.\nDo you have the substance of a human or a donkey? How will you carry these accidents which perish?\nThese accidents of prayer and fasting, since they do not endure for two moments, are negated.\nOne cannot transfer accidents, but they remove diseases from the substance;\nSo that the substance is transformed by this accident, just as disease is removed by dieting;\nThe accident of dieting becomes substance through effort; the bitter mouth becomes sweet from dieting.\nFrom farming, the soils became spikes of grain; hair medicine made the hair a chain.\nThe marriage to a woman was an accident and passed away; the substance of a child was produced from us.\nMating a horse or a camel is an accident; the purpose is the birthing of the substance of the foal.\nPlanting that orchard is also an accident; the orchard became a crop of substance, which is the purpose.\nKnow also that applying alchemy is an accident; if a substance came from that alchemy, bring it.\nPolishing is an accident, O King; from this accident, the substance of purity is born.\nSo do not say, 'I have performed deeds'; show the revenue of those accidents, do not deceive.\nThis describing is an accident; be silent! Do not drag the shadow of a goat to be sacrificed."\nHe said, "O King, the intellect does not despair; if you say accidents cannot be transferred,\nO King, there is nothing but the servant's despair, if the accident that passed does not return.\nIf there were no transfer and resurrection for accidents, action would be vain and words nonsense.\nThese accidents are transferred in another color; the resurrection of every perishing thing is another state of being.\nThe transfer of everything is suitable to it; suitable to the flock is also its driver.\nAt the time of resurrection, every accident has a form; the form of every accident has its turn.\nLook within yourself: were you not an accident—the movement of a pair, and a pair with a purpose?\nLook at houses and dwellings; within the architect, they were like tales.\nThat certain house which we found beautiful, its portico, roof, and door were proportioned;\nFrom the architect, those accidents and thoughts brought tools and pillars from the forests.\nWhat is the root and substance of every craft, but an imagination, an accident, and a thought?\nLook at all the parts of the world without prejudice; none were produced except from an accident.\nFirst came thought, last it came into action; know the foundation of the world in eternity to be like this.\nFruits are first in the thought of the heart; in action they become manifest at the end.\nWhen you acted and planted the tree, at the end you read the first word.\nAlthough its branch, leaf, and root are first, all of those are sent for the sake of the fruit.\nTherefore, the Head who was the kernel of those heavens, in the end was the Master of 'But for you'.\nThis discussion and speech is the transfer of accidents; this milk and jackal is the transfer of accidents.\nThe whole world itself was accidents until 'Has there come' came in this meaning.\nFrom what are these accidents born? From forms. And from what are these forms born? From thought.\nThis world is a single thought from the Universal Intellect; the Intellect is like a king and forms are envoys.\nThe first world is the world of test; the second world is the recompense for this and that.\nO King, your servant commits a crime; that accident becomes chains and prison.\nWhen your servant performed a worthy service, did that accident not become a robe of honor in the struggle?\nThis accident and substance are like the egg and the bird; this is born from that, and that from this, in succession."\nThe King of kings said, "Suppose it is as you wish; these accidents of yours did not birth a single substance."\nHe said, "Wisdom has kept it hidden, so that the good and bad of this world may remain unseen.\nBecause if the forms of thought became manifest, disbeliever and believer would utter nothing but remembrance.\nThen this would be visible, not unseen, O King; the mark of religion and disbelief would be on the forehead.\nWhen would there be an idol and idol-maker in this world? When would anyone have the gall to mock?\nThen this world of ours would be the Resurrection; who commits a crime or error in the Resurrection?"\nThe King said, "God concealed the reward of evil, but from the common people, not from His chosen ones.\nIf I throw an amir into a snare, I hide it from the amirs, not from the vizier.\nGod has shown me, therefore, the reward of action, and a hundred thousand of the forms of deeds.\nGive a sign, for I know completely; the cloud does not hide the moon from me."\nHe said, "Then what is the purpose of my speaking, since you know what that which was is?"\nThe King said, "The wisdom in manifesting the world is that what is known should come out into the open.\nUntil He made manifest what He knew, He did not lay the pain and pangs of childbirth upon the world.\nYou cannot sit idle for a moment, until a good or evil springs from you.\nThese demands for action were made your supervisors for this reason, so that your secret might become visible.\nSo how can the reel of the body become still, when the end of the thread of its mind is pulling it?\nYour restlessness became the sign of that pulling; idleness for you is like the agony of death.\nThis world and that world are giving birth eternally; every cause is a mother, the effect its child.\nWhen the effect is born, it too becomes a cause, so that it may give birth to wondrous effects.\nThese causes are generation upon generation, but a thoroughly illumined eye is needed."\nThe King reached this point in speech with him; either he saw a sign from him or he did not.\nIf that seeking King saw it, it is not far off; but we do not have permission to mention it.\nWhen that slave came from the bath, that King and noble leader called him to himself.\nHe said, "May it be to your health, an everlasting bliss! You are very refined, elegant, and handsome.\nO, alas, if there were not in you that which a certain person has been saying about you,\nWhoever saw your face would rejoice; seeing you would be worth the kingdom of the world."\nHe said, "Tell a hint of that, O King, which that ruiner of religion said about me."\nHe said, "First he described your two-facedness, that outwardly you are a medicine, secretly a disease."\nWhen he heard from the King of his friend's malice, immediately the sea of his anger boiled up.\nThat slave foamed at the mouth and turned red, until the wave of his satire passed all bounds.\nSaying, "From the first breath that he was my companion, he was quite an eater of filth, like a dog in a famine!"\nWhen he continually mocked him like a ringing bell, his King of kings struck his hand on his lips, saying, "Enough!\nI have known you from him by this: your soul is foul, and your friend's mouth.\nSo sit far away, O foul-souled one, so that he may be the commander and you the commanded."\nIn the Hadith it has come that glorification of God out of hypocrisy is like greenery on an ashpit, O lord.\nSo know that a beautiful and good form, with bad qualities, is not worth a grain.\nAnd if the form is lowly and unacceptable, if his character is good, die at his feet!\nOutward form will perish, know this; the world of meaning will remain forever.\nHow long will you play at love with the shape of the jug? Pass beyond the shape of the jug, go seek the water.\nYou saw its form, you are heedless of the meaning; pick a pearl from the oyster, if you are wise.\nThese oysters of bodies in the world, although they are all alive from the sea of the soul,\nYet in every oyster there is not a pearl; open your eyes and look into the heart of each one.\nConsider what that one has, and what this one has, and choose; for that precious pearl is rare.\nIf you go by form, a mountain in its shape is a hundred times larger than a ruby in greatness.\nAlso in form, your hands, feet, and hair are a hundred times greater than the shape of your eye;\nBut this is not hidden from you, that of all the organs, the two eyes are the chosen ones.\nFrom a single thought that comes within, a hundred worlds are overthrown in an instant.\nThe body of a sultan, though it be one in form, a hundred thousand soldiers run behind him.\nThen again, the shape and form of the pure king is subject to one hidden thought.\nSee countless people running like a flood upon the earth, from one thought.\nThat thought is small in the eyes of the people, but like a flood it swallowed and carried away the world.\nSo since you see that from a thought every craft in the world is established;\nHouses, palaces, and cities, mountains, plains, and rivers;\nAlso earth and sea, and sun and heaven, are alive by it as a fish is by the sea;\nThen why, out of foolishness before you, blind one, is the body Solomon and thought like an ant?\nIt appears before your eye that thought is like a mouse and the mountain like a wolf in greatness.\nThe world is terrible and huge in your eye; you have trembling and fear of cloud, thunder, and heaven;\nAnd of the world of thought, O less than a donkey, you are secure and heedless like an unaware stone;\nBecause you are a mere form and lack a share of intellect; you do not have a human nature, you are a donkey foal.\nFrom ignorance, you see the shadow as the person; for that reason, the person became a plaything and easy to you.\nWait until the day when that thought and imagination opens its wings and feathers without a veil.\nYou will see the mountains become like soft wool, this cold and hot earth brought to naught.\nYou will see neither heaven nor star nor existence, save the One, Living, Loving God.\nA tale has come, true or false, so that it may give radiance to truths.