The Allegory

A devout Sufi, dwelling among the elders of the sanctuary, had reached a station of genuine divine ecstasy (وجد الهی): the bird of his heart had escaped the snare of the ego, and divine attraction (جذب حق) had freed him from himself so that he circled the sanctuary purified of his own existence.

One day fate struck his heart: a female singer (مطربه) captivated him, and the sweet taste (ذوق) of her coquetry and song pulled his heart from reality (حقیقت) down to metaphor (مجاز). His ecstatic state persisted, but its object had shifted from God to the beautiful singer. He surrendered his dervish cloak (خرقه) to the elders, confessing he could no longer conceal what had overtaken him.

Interpretive point

The tale dramatizes a central Sufi warning: sensory or worldly beauty (the metaphorical, مجاز) can hijack the very faculty of spiritual longing, redirecting an ecstasy meant for the Divine (the real, حقیقت) toward a created object. It contrasts the seek...