Original content

English translation

He said, “O friends, God has inspired me; a strong counsel has come to a weak one. What God taught the bee was not given to the lion or the wild ass. It builds houses full of fresh sweetness; God opened the door of that knowledge to it. What God taught the silkworm, does any elephant know such a stratagem? Earth-born Adam learned knowledge from God, until that knowledge lit up the seventh heaven. It shattered the angels’ name and honor; blindness be upon the one who disputed against the Truth. For the ascetic of six hundred thousand years, that calf, it made a muzzle, so that he could not draw the milk of religious knowledge and could not circle that lofty palace. The sciences of the people of sense became a muzzle, so that they might not draw milk from that high knowledge. To the drop of the heart there fell a jewel that He did not give to the seas or the heavens. How long with form, O form-worshipper? Your meaning-less soul has not escaped from form. If a human were human by outward form, Ahmad and Abu Jahl would be the same. A picture on the wall is like a human; look what it lacks in outward form. Soul is what that shining form lacks; go seek that rare jewel. The heads of all the lions of the world were lowered when a hand was given to the dog of the Companions. What harm comes to it from that repellent form, when its soul has been drowned in the sea of light? Description and form are not contained in pens; ‘learned’ and ‘just’ are only in written names. Learned and just are wholly meaning; you will not find that in place, before, or after. It strikes the body from the side of placelessness; the sun of the soul does not fit within the celestial sphere.”