XVI

1. They (the women) mounted the howdahs on the swift camels and placed in them the (damsels like) marble statues and full moons,

2. And promised my heart that they should return; but do the fair promise anything except deceit?

3. And she saluted with her henna-tipped fingers for the leave-taking, and let fall tears that excited the flames (of desire).

4. When she turned her back with the purpose of making for al-Khawarnaq and as-Sadír,

5. I cried out after them, 'Perdition!' She answered and said, 'Dost thou invoke perdition?

6. Then invoke it not only once, but cry "Perdition!" many times.'

7. O dove of the arák trees, have a little pity on me! for parting only increased thy moans,

8. And thy lamentation, O dove, inflames the longing lover, excites the jealous,

9. Melts the heart, drives off sleep, and doubles our desires and sighing.

10. Death hovers because of the dove's lamentation, and we beg him to spare us a little while,

11. That perchance a breath from the zephyr of Ḥájir may sweep towards us rain-clouds,

12. By means of which thou wilt satisfy thirsty souls; but thy clouds only flee farther than before.

13. O watcher of the star, be my boon-companion, and O wakeful spy on the lightning, be my nocturnal comrade!

14. O sleeper in the night, thou didst welcome sleep and inhabit the tombs ere thy death.

15. But hadst thou been in love with the fond maiden, thou wouldst have gained, through her, happiness and joy,

16. Giving to the fair (women) the wines of intimacy, conversing secretly with the suns, and flattering the full moons.

Commentary

1. 'The camels' are the human faculties, 'the howdahs' are the actions which they are charged to perform, 'the damsels' in the howdahs are the mystical sciences and the perfect sorts of knowledge.

3. He says, 'This Divine subtlety, being acquired and not given directly, is subject to a change produced by contact with phenomena'; this change he indicates by speaking of 'her henna-tipped fingers', as though it were the modification

of unity by a kind of association. Nevertheless, her staying in the heart is more desirable than her going, for she protects the gnostic as long as she is there.

'And let fall tears,' etc.: she let loose in the heart sciences of contemplation which produced an intense yearning.

4. 'Al-Khawarnaq and as-Sadír,' i.e. the Divine presence.

5. 'Perdition!' i.e. death to the phenomenal world now that these sublime mysteries have vanished from it.

'Dost thou invoke perdition?' i.e. why dost thou not see the face of God in everything, in light and darkness, in simple and composite, in subtle and gross, in order that thou mayst not feel the grief of parting.

6. 'Cry "Perdition!" many times' (cf. Kor. xxv, 15), i.e. not only in this station but in every station in which thou art placed, for thou must bid farewell to every one of them, and thou canst not fail to be grieved, since, whenever the form of the Truth disappears from thee, thou imaginest that He has left thee; but He has not left thee, and it is only thy remaining with thyself that veils from thee the vision of that which pervades the whole of creation.

7. 'O dove of the arák trees': he addresses holy influences of Divine pleasure which have descended upon him.

'Have a little pity on me!' i.e. pity my weakness and inability to attain unto thy purity.

'For parting only increased thy moans': he says, 'Inasmuch as thy substance only exists through and in me, and I am diverted from thee by the dark world of phenomena which keeps me in bondage, for this cause thou art lamenting thy separation from me.'

8. 'And thy lamentation,' etc., i.e. we who seek the unbounded freedom of the celestial world should weep more bitterly than thou.

'Excites the jealous': jealousy arises from regarding others, and he who beholds God in everything feels no jealousy, for God is One; but since God manifests Himself in various forms, the term 'jealousy' is applicable to Him.

10. 'Death,' i.e. the station in which the subtle principle of Man is severed from its governance of this dark body for the sake of the Divine subtleties which are conveyed to it by the above-mentioned holy influences.

11. 'Ḥájir' denotes here the most inaccessible veil of the Divine glory. No phenomenal being can attain to the immediate experience thereof, but scents of it blow over the hearts of gnostics in virtue of a kind of amorous affection.

'Rain-clouds,' i.e. sciences and diverse sorts of knowledge belonging to the most holy Essence.

13. 'O watcher of the star,' in reference to keeping in mind that which the sciences offer in their various connexions.

'O wakeful spy on the lightning': the lightning is a locus of manifestation of the Essence. The author says, addressing one who seeks it, 'Our quest is the same, be my comrade in the night.'

14. This verse may be applied either to the heedless or to the unconscious.

15. 'The fond maiden,' i.e. the Essential subtlety which is the gnostic's object of desire.

'Through her': although She is unattainable, yet through her manifestation to thee all that thou hast is baptized for thee, and thy whole kingdom is displayed to thee by that Essential form.

16. 'Conversing secretly with the suns,' etc., in reference to the Traditions which declare that God will be seen in the next world like the sun in a cloudless sky or like the moon when she is full.

XVII

1. O driver of the reddish-white camels, do not hasten with them, but stop! for I am a cripple going after them.

2. Stop the camels and tighten their reins! I beseech thee by God, by my passion, by my anguish, O driver!

3. My soul is willing, but my foot does not second her. Who will pity and help me?

4. What shall the skilled craftsman do in a case where his tools have declared themselves to be working mischief?

5. Turn aside, for their tents are on the right of the valley. God bless thee, O valley, for what thou containest!

6. Thou hast collected a folk who are my soul and my breath and the inmost core of the black clot in the membrane of my liver.

7. May my love be unblest if I do not die of grief at Ḥájir or Sal‘ or Ajyád!

Commentary

1. The Divine Spirit which speaks in Man and is charged with the governance of this body says to the camel-driver, i.e. to God's summoner who guides the lofty aspirations in their journey heavenward, 'Do not hasten with them, for I am hampered by this body to which I am tied until death.'

3. 'Who will pity and help me?' He refers to the decree of God.

4. He says, 'What shall I do? Though I am able to quit the body at times, i.e. in moments of passing away and absence under the influence of ecstasy, my aim is to depart entirely; and, moreover, at such moments the sensible world exercises a powerful attraction upon me. This attraction (here called "his tools") spoils what I am endeavouring to do, and disturbs my state of passing away and absence in order to bring me back to the body.'

5. 'Their tents,' i.e. the abodes of these aspirations, which are, in their knowledge of God, not in God, since He is not a locus for anything. Knowledge of God is the utmost goal to which contingent being can attain, and the whole universe depends on knowledge and on nothing else.

'On the right of the valley,' referring to the occasion when God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai (Kor. xix, 53).

'What thou containest,' i.e. Divine, holy, and Mosaic kinds of knowledge.

7. 'Ḥájir,' i.e. the intermediate world.

'Sal‘,' a mountain near Medina, i.e. the station of Muḥammad.

'Ajyád,' a mountain near Mecca, i.e. a Divine station which causes me to pass away from all phenomenal existence.

XVIII

1. Halt at the abodes and weep over the ruins and ask the decayed habitations a question.

2. 'Where are the loved ones? Where are their camels gone?' (They answer), 'Behold them traversing the vapour in the desert.

3. Thou seest them in the mirage like gardens: the vapour makes large in the eyes the figure (of one who walks in it).'

4. They went, desiring al-‘Udhayb, that they might drink there a cool life-giving fountain.

5. I followed, asking the zephyr about them, whether they have pitched tents or have sought the shade of the ḍál tree.

6. The zephyr said, 'I left their tents at Zarúd, and the camels were complaining of fatigue from their night-journey.

7. They had let down over the tents coverings to protect their beauty from the heat of noon.

8. Rise, then, and go towards them, seeking their traces, and drive thy camels speedily in their direction.

9. And when thou wilt stop at the landmarks of Ḥájir and cross dales and hills there,

10. Their abodes will be near and their fire will be clearly seen—a fire which has caused the flame of love to blaze.

11. Make the camels kneel! Let not its lions affright thee, for longing love will present them to thine eyes in the form of cubs.'

Commentary

1. He says to the voice of God calling from his heart, 'Halt at the abodes,' i.e. the stations where gnostics

alight in the course of their journey to infinite knowledge of their object of worship.

'And weep over the ruins,' i.e. the traces left by those gnostics, since I cannot accompany them.

'The decayed habitations,' because there is no joy in the abodes which have been deserted, and their very existence depends on those who dwell in them.

2. 'Their camels,' i.e. their aspirations.

'The vapour,' i.e. the evidences of that which they seek, for its evidences are attached to its being found in themselves.

'The desert,' i.e. the station of abstraction.

3. 'Makes large,' i.e. they are grand because they give evidence of the grandeur of that which they seek. Hence it is said, 'In order that he who was not (namely, thou) may pass away, and He who never was not (namely, God) may subsist for ever.' And God said, 'Like a vapour in the plain (i.e. the station of humility) … when he cometh to it, he findeth it to be nothing, but he findeth God with him' (Kor. xxiv, 39), inasmuch as all secondary causes have been cut off from him. Accordingly the author says that the vapour makes large, etc., meaning that Man's superiority over all other contingent beings consists in his giving stronger evidence of God, since he is the most perfect organism, as the Prophet said, 'Verily he was created in the image of the Merciful.'

4. 'Desiring al-‘Udhayb,' i.e. seeking the mystery of life in the station of purity from the fountain of liberality.

'That they might drink': shurb is the second degree of Divine manifestation dhawq being the first.

5. 'Whether they have pitched tents,' referring to knowledge acquired by them.

'Or have sought the shade of the ḍál tree,' referring to knowledge divinely bestowed, in which their actions have no part. Ḍál implies bewilderment.

6. 'At Zarúd,' a great tract of sand in the desert: inasmuch as sand is often tossed by the wind from one place

to another, he indicates that they are in a state of unrest, because they are seeking that which is unimaginable, and of which only the traces are to be found in the soul.

7. 'Coverings to protect their beauty,' i.e. unless their faces, viz. their realities, were veiled, the intense radiance of this station would consume them.

8. 'Seeking their traces': he says, 'Seek to approach the degree of the prophets with thy aspiration (this he indicates by the word "camels"), but not by immediate experience, for only the Prophet has immediate experience of this station.' There is nothing, however, to prevent anyone from aspiring to it, although it is unattainable.

9. 'Ḥájir,' referring to the obstacle which makes immediate experience of this station impossible for us.

10. 'Their fire will be clearly seen,' i.e. the perils into which they plunged before they could arrive at these abodes. According to the Tradition, 'Paradise is encompassed with hateful actions.'

One of the illuminati told me at al-Mawṣil that he had seen in a dream Ma‘rúf al-Karkhí sitting in the midst of Hell-fire. The dream terrified him and he did not perceive its meaning. I said to him, 'That fire is the enclosure that guards the abode in which you saw him seated. Let anyone who desires to reach that abode plunge into the fire.' My friend was pleased with this explanation and recognized that it was true.

11. 'Let not its lions affright thee,' i.e. if thou art a true lover be not dismayed by the dangers confronting thee. 'In the form of cubs,' i.e. innocuous and of no account.

XIX

1. O mouldering remains (of the encampment) at al-Uthayl, where I played with friendly maidens!

2. Yesterday it was cheerful and smiling, but to-day it has become desolate and frowning.

3. They went far away and I was unaware of them, and they knew not that my mind was watching over them,

4. Following them wherever they journeyed and pitched tents, and sometimes it was managing the beasts of burden,

5. Until, when they alighted in a barren wilderness and pitched tents and spread the carpets,

6. It brought them back to a meadow verdant and ripe which erstwhile had been an arid desert.

7. They did not halt at any place but its meadow contained forms beautiful as peacocks,

8. And they did not depart from any place but its earth contained tombs of their lovers.

Commentary

1. 'Al-Uthayl,' i.e. the natural constitution. Its remains are described as 'mouldering' because they are changed by the various spiritual emotions which pass over them.

'Friendly maidens,' i.e. forms of Divine wisdom by which the gnostic's heart is gladdened.

2. 'Desolate and frowning,' because he has returned to the world of sense and consciousness.

3. 'And they knew not,' etc.: as, when a man leaves a place, he remains there in imagination and keeps the picture of it in his soul.

4. 'It was managing the beasts of burden,' i.e. he was influencing them by his thought, so that their thoughts turned to him. This was the result of his sincerity; for the inferior, if he turn sincerely to God, may influence the superior, as often happens with sincere novices and their spiritual directors.

5. 'In a barren wilderness,' i.e. the station of absolute and abstract unification.

'And spread the carpets,' in reference to the Divine favours which they received on reaching the abode of the Truth.

6. In this verse he points out that no reality except the Divine substance can subsist together with abstract unification. Hence, when they gained this station and realized it and knew the meaning of God's word, 'There is nothing like unto

Him,' He brought them back to the unification of their own essences in respect of their oneness, which is incomparable in respect of the Divine substance contained in its essence.

'To a meadow verdant and ripe,' referring to the Divine mysteries which the Truth conveyed to them by the realities of the Names.

7. 'Forms beautiful as peacocks,' i.e. their lovely spiritual states, actions, and dispositions.

8. 'Tombs of their lovers,' i.e. the realities which desire that their traces should be manifested in gnostics. These objects of knowledge only exist through those who know them, and therefore they love the existence of the gnostic, in so far as he knows them, more intensely than they are desired by him. Accordingly the author describes them as dying when the gnostics depart.

XX

1. My lovesickness is from her of the lovesick eyelids: console me by the mention of her, console me

2. The grey doves fluttered in the meadows and wailed: the grief of these doves is from that which grieved me.

3. May my father be the ransom of a tender playful girl, one of the maidens guarded in howdahs, advancing swayingly among the married women!

4. She rose, plain to see, like a sun, and when she vanished she shone in the horizon of my heart.

5. O ruined abodes at Ráma! How many fair damsels with swelling breasts have they beheld!

6. May my father and I myself be the ransom of a God-nurtured gazelle which pastures between my ribs in safety!

7. The fire thereof in that place is light: thus is the light the quencher of the fires.

8. O my two friends, bend my reins aside that I may see the form of her abode with clear vision.

9. And when ye reach the abode, descend, and there, my two companions, weep for me,

10. And stop with me a little while at the ruins, that we may endeavour to weep, nay, that I may weep indeed because of that which befell me.

11. Passion shoots me without arrows, passion slays me without a spear.

12. Tell me, will ye weep with me when I weep beside her? Help me, oh help me to weep!

13. And rehearse to me the tale of Hind and Lubná and Sulaymá and Zaynab and ‘Inán!

14. Then tell me further of Ḥájir and Zarúd, give me news of the pastures of the gazelles!

15. And mourn for me with the poetry of Qays and Lubná, and with Mayya and the afflicted Ghaylán!

16. Long have I yearned for a tender maiden, endowed with prose and verse, having a pulpit, eloquent,

17. One of the princesses from the land of Persia, from the most glorious of cities, from Isfahan.

18. She is the daughter of ‘Iráq, the daughter of my Imám, and I am her opposite, a child of Yemen.

19. O my lords, have ye seen or heard that two opposites are ever united?

20. Had you seen us at Ráma proffering each other cups of passion without fingers,

21. Whilst passion caused sweet and joyous words to be uttered between us without a tongue,

22. You would have seen a state in which the understanding disappears—Yemen and ‘Iráq embracing together.

23. Falsely spoke the poet ¹ who said before my time (and he has pelted me with the stones of his understanding),

24. 'O thou who givest the Pleiades in marriage to Suhayl, God bless thee! how should they meet?

25. The Pleiades are in the north whenever they rise, and Suhayl whenever he rises is in the south.'

Commentary

1. 'Her of the lovesick eyelids': he means the Presence desired by gnostics. Although she is too sublime to be known and loved, she inclines towards them in mercy and kindness and descends into their hearts by a sort of manifestation.

'Console me by the mention of her': there is no cure for his malady but remembrance. He says 'Console me' twice, i.e. by my remembrance of God and by God's remembrance of me (cf. Kor. ii, 147).

2. 'The grey doves,' i.e. the spirits of the intermediate world.

'And wailed,' because their souls cannot join the spirits which have been released from imprisonment in this earthly body.

3. 'A tender playful girl,' i.e. a form of Divine wisdom, essential and holy, which fills the heart with joy.

One of the maidens guarded in howdahs': she is a virgin, because none has ever known her before; she was veiled in modesty and jealousy during all her journey from the Divine Presence to the heart of this gnostic.

'The married women,' i.e. the forms of Divine wisdom already realized by gnostics who preceded him.

4. 'And when she vanished,' etc., i.e. when she set in the world of evidence she rose in the world of the Unseen.

5. 'O ruined abodes,' i.e. the bodily faculties.

'At Ráma,' from ráma (he sought), implying that their search is vain.

'How many fair damsels,' etc., i.e. subtle and Divine forms by which the bodily faculties were annihilated.

7. The natural fires are extinguished by the heavenly light in his heart.

8. 'The form of her abode,' i.e. the Presence from which she issued forth. He seems to desire the station of Divine contemplation, since wisdom is not desired except for the sake of that to which it leads.

9. 'Weep for me,' because this Presence annihilates everyone who attains unto her and beholds her.

10. 'That I may weep,' etc., i.e. for the loss of the loved ones and of everything except the ruins of their abode.

11. 'Without arrows,' i.e. from a distance. He refers to the state called bu‘d.

'Without a spear,' i.e. near at hand. He refers to the state called qurb.

13. Hind was the mistress of Bishr, and Lubná of Qays b. adh-Dharíḥ; ‘Inán was a slave-girl belonging to an-Náṭifí; Zaynab was one of the mistresses of ‘Umar b. Abí Rabí‘a; Sulaymá was a slave-girl whom the author had seen: he says that she had a lover. He interprets the names of all these women mystically, e.g. Hind is explained as an allusion to the Fall of Adam, and Zaynab as signifying removal from the station of saintship to that of prophecy.

16. He describes this essential knowledge as endowed with prose and verse, i.e. absolute in respect of her essence, but limited in respect of possession.

'A pulpit,' i.e. the ladder of the Most Beautiful Names. To climb this ladder is to be invested with the qualities of these Names.

'Eloquent,' referring to the station of Apostleship.

The author adds: 'I allude enigmatically to the various kinds of mystical knowledge which are under the veil of an-Niẓám, the maiden daughter of our Shaykh.'

17. 'One of the princesses,' on account of her asceticism, for ascetics are the kings of the earth.

18. '‘Iráq' indicates origin, i.e. this knowledge comes of a noble race.

'A child of Yemen,' i.e. in respect of faith and wisdom and the breath of the Merciful and tenderness of heart. These qualities are the opposite of what is attributed to ‘Iráq, viz. rudeness and severity and infidelity; whereas the opposite of ‘Iráq itself is not Yemen,

but the Maghrib, and the opposite of Yemen itself is not ‘Iráq, but Syria. The antithesis here is between the qualities of the Beloved and those of the lover.

19. 'Two opposites,' referring to the story of Junayd, when a man sneezed in his presence and said, 'God be praised!' (Kor. i, 1). Junayd said, completing the verse, 'Who is the Lord of created beings.' The man replied, 'And who is the created being, that he should be mentioned in the same breath with God?' 'O my brother,' said Junayd, 'the phenomenal, when it is joined to the Eternal, vanishes and leaves no trace behind. When He is there, thou art not, and if thou art there, He is not.'

22. 'Yemen and ‘Iráq,' etc., i.e. the identification of the qualities of Wrath and Mercy. He refers to the saying of Abú Sa‘íd al-Kharráz, who on being asked how he knew God, answered, 'By His uniting two opposites, for He is the First and the Last and the Outward and the Inward' (Kor. lvii, 3).

24. 'The Pleiades,' i.e. the seven attributes demonstrated by scholastic philosophers.

'Suhayl,' i.e. the Divine Essence.

25. 'In the north,' i.e. in the world of phenomena. The Divine attributes are manifested in Creation, but the Divine Essence does not enter into Creation.