1. O garden of the valley, answer the lady of the preserve and her who hath shining front-teeth, O garden of the valley
2. And let a little of thy shades o’ershadow her for a short time until she be settled in the meeting-place.
3. And her tents be pitched in thy midst. Then thou wilt have as much as thou wishest of dew to feed the tender shoots,
4. And as much as thou wishest of showers and the moisture of clouds passing over her bán trees at eve and morn,
5. And as much as thou wishest of dense shade and fruit, delicious to the gatherer, swaying the bough (on which it hangs),
6. And of those who seek Zarúd and its sands, and of those who chant as they drive the camels from behind, and of those who march in front and lead them well.
1. 'O garden of the valley,' in reference to the bush in which the Divine light appeared to Moses.
'The lady of the preserve,' i.e. the reality of Moses, signifying a spiritual degree which the gnostic inherited from Moses. 'Preserve' denotes the station of Glory unattainable by his essence.
'Shining front-teeth,' because he is in the station of converse and speech.
2. 'Until she be settled,' i.e. until the place be ready for her reception, so that she may speak from his essence to his essence without regard to anything extraneous.
3. 'Dew to feed the tender shoots,' i.e. gracious sorts of knowledge which nourish the human organism.
6. 'Zarúd and its sands,' i.e. elusive sorts of knowledge which are not to be apprehended save in moments of ecstasy.
'And of those who chant,' etc. The ḥádí who drives the camels from behind typifies that which comes with fear and chiding and menaces, while the ḥádí who goes in front of the camels typifies that which comes with hope and joy and kindness. The former is the servant of the Wrathful, and the latter is the servant of the Merciful.
1. Turn the camels aside towards the stony tract of Thahmad, where are the tender branches and the humid meadow,
2. Where the lightnings show to thee their flashes, where the clouds pass at eve and morn,
3. And lift thy voice at dawn to invoke the bright-faced damsels and the fair lissome virgins,
4. Who murder with their black eyes and bend their supple necks.
5. Among them is she who loves and assails with glances like arrows and Indian swords every frenzied heart that loves the fair.
6. She takes with a hand soft and delicate, like pure silk, anointed with nadd and shredded musk.
7. When she looks, she gazes with the deep eye of a young gazelle; to her eye belongs the blackness of antimony.
8. Her eyes are adorned with languishment and killing magic, her sides are girt with amazement and incomparable beauty.
9. A slender one, she loves not that which I love and she does not fulfil her threats with sincerity. 1
10. She let down her plaited lock as a black serpent, that she might frighten with it those who were following her.
11. By God, I fear not death; my only fear is that I shall die and shall not see her to-morrow.
1. 'The camels,' i.e. the clouds.
2. 'The lightnings.' The author of these poems always uses the term 'lightning' to denote a centre of manifestation for the Divine Essence.
3. 'The bright-faced damsels,' i.e. intelligences derived from Idrís which have descended from the fourth heaven.
'Lissome,' i.e. inclining towards the phenomenal world, to replenish it. He means all realities that are connected with the phenomenal world, e.g. the Divine Names.
4. 'Who murder with their black eyes,' referring to the sciences of contemplation.
5. 'Indian,' because India is the place where Adam fell, and there the fountains of wisdom which were in Adam first gushed forth.
6. 'Pure silk,' i.e. undyed, in reference to her being removed from all contamination.
'Anointed with nadd,' i.e. with mixed perfumes. He means that she is invested with Divine qualities.
9. 'She loves not that which I love,' i.e. she is not limited by the will of anyone, and if it happens that her will is in accord with mine, that is due to the effect produced by her upon me, not to the effect produced by me upon her.
'She does not fulfil,' etc., i.e. she is clement and forgiving.
10. 'Her plaited lock;' i.e. a chain of evidences and proofs. A black serpent,' referring to the science of the Divine majesty and awe.
11. He says that he is only afraid of missing the contemplation of his Beloved, and that he hesitated to follow her because he wished to acquire such Divine faculties as would enable him to face this manifestation.
1. At dawn they alighted in Wádí ’l-‘Aqíq after having traversed many a deep ravine,
2. And at daybreak they descried a cairn shining on the top of a mountain peak.
3. When the vulture desires to reach it he is unable, and the eggs of the anúq are below it.
4. Ornaments are set upon it: its foundations are lofty, like al-‘Aqúq.
5. And they had written some lines which were communicated to them: 'Oh, who will help a forlorn and longing lover,
6. Who although his thought soars above this Arcturus, is trodden underfoot like burning ashes, 1
7. And whose home is beside this Aquila, yet he has died in tears the death of the drowned?
8. His love hath delivered him to calamities in this place without a brother to befriend him.
9. Then, O ye who come to the waters of the well, and O ye who inhabit Wádí ’l-‘Aqíq,
10. And O thou who seekest Medina to visit it, and O ye who travel on this road,
11. Look on us again with pity! for we were robbed, a little after dawn, a little before sunrise,
12. Of a bright-faced lissome damsel sweet of breath, diffusing a perfume like shredded musk,
13. Swaying drunkenly to and fro like the branches, fresh as raw silk, 1 which the winds have bent,
14. Shaking, like the hump of a stallion-camel, fearsome hips huge as sand-hills.
15. No censor blamed me for loving her, and my friend did not blame me for loving her.
16. If any censor had blamed me for loving her, my sobbing would have been my answer to him.
17. My desire is my troop of camels and my grief is my garment and my passion is my morning drink and my tears are my evening drink.'
1. He describes pilgrims on the way to the Truth, travelling in themselves through the night of their bodily existence and stopping for rest at dawn, i.e. the boundary which divides the wisdom appertaining to the Divine realities that is deposited in the phenomenal world from the realities of the Spirits of Light, which are called allegorically the Heavenly Host. The travellers cause their camels, i.e. their aspirations, to halt in the Wádí ’l-‘Aqíq, where pilgrims put on the garb of pilgrimage. This is the station of Muḥammadan sanctity.
2. 'A cairn,' i.e. a guide, namely, the spirit.
'A mountain peak,' i.e. the body.
3. 'The vulture,' i.e. the spirit of the intermediate world, which is nearer than any other of the ruling spirits to the Heavenly Host.
'The anúq,' which lays its eggs in the loftiest and most inaccessible places.
4. 'Ornaments,' i.e. the manifestation of the Divine qualities. In Bodl. (Uri) 1276, the commentary states that al-‘Aqúq is said to be a great castle on the top of a high mountain.
7. 'And whose home,' etc., i.e. this station, notwithstanding its sublimity, is veiled by various sorts of revealed knowledge, belonging to the class of love, from this person who abides there, so that he is caused to pass away from the contemplation of himself in this centre of manifestation.
9. 'The waters of the well,' i.e. the life acquired from good works, viz. the life of knowledge, in reference to Kor. vi, 122: 'Shall he who was dead and whom we restored to life …?'
10. 'On this road,' i.e. the right way, in reference to Kor. vi, 154.
11. 'A little before sunrise,' i.e. the hour of the ascent that succeeds the Divine descent into the terrestrial heaven, which descent occurs in the last third of the night.
12. 'A bright-faced lissome damsel,' i.e. the Essential attribute which is his object of desire. She is called 'lissome' because of her descent towards us, yet from it nothing is derived that can be grasped by knowledge or understanding or imagination.
'Diffusing a perfume,' etc., i.e. leaving Divine impressions in the hearts of her worshippers.
13. 'Swaying drunkenly,' in reference to the station of bewilderment.
'Which the winds have bent,' i.e. the aspirations by seeking her cause her to incline, as God says, 'If anyone comes a span nearer to Me, I will come a cubit nearer to him.'
14. This verse refers to the infinite bounties, spiritual and other, which God has heaped upon His servants.
15. Inasmuch as she is like the sun, which is common to all, she does not excite jealousy.
16. 'My sobbing,' i.e. my ecstasy would make me deaf to his reproaches.
17. 'My desire is my troop of camels,' which bear me to my Beloved.
The author says: A dervish recited to me the following verse, to which I knew not any brother—
'Everyone who hopes for thy bounty receives copious showers thereof; thy lightning never breaks its promise of rain except with me.'
I admired its application and pursued its meaning, and I composed some verses in the same rhyme, including this verse among them on account of its perfection, and I said in answer to that dervish (may God have mercy on him!) as follows:—
1. Halt by the ruined abodes at La‘la‘ and mourn for our loved ones in that wilderness.
2. Halt by thy dwelling-places and call to them, wondering at their loneliness, with exquisite lamentation.
3. 'Beside thy bán tree I have seen many a one like myself plucking the fruit of comely forms and the roses of a verdant meadow.
4. Everyone who hopes for thy bounty receives copious showers thereof; thy lightning never breaks its promise of rain except with me.'
5. She said, 'Yes; there hath been that meeting in the shadow of my boughs in the most plenteous spot,
6. When my lightning was one of the lightnings of smiling mouths; but to-day my lightning is the flash of this brilliant stone.
7. Reproach, then, a fate which we had no means of averting: what is the fault of the camping-place at La‘la‘?'
8. I excused her when I heard her speech and how she was complaining even as I complain with a sorrowful heart,
9. And I asked her, when I saw her demesne, through which the four winds sweep at night,
10. 'Did their winds tell thee where they rested at noontide?' She said, 'Yes; they rested at Dhát al-Ajra‘,
11. Where the white tents are radiant with those rising suns within.'
1. 'The ruined abodes,' i.e. the vestiges of the dwelling-places of the Divine Names in the hearts of gnostics.
'In that wilderness,' i.e. in his empty heart.
3. 'Plucking the fruit of comely forms,' i.e. the manifold knowledge of the Divine Self-subsistence with which, according to our doctrine, it is possible to be invested. This investiture is a matter of dispute amongst the Ṣúfís; Ibn Junayd al-Ifríqí and his followers consider that it is not correct.
'The roses of a verdant meadow,' referring to the station of Shame, which results from meditation and contemplation.
4. 'Thy lightning never breaks its promise,' etc., i.e. through the lack of Divine favour. He also indicates that he himself is in a lofty station which was not reached by any of his peers, because the lightning is a locus of manifestation for the Essence, and from this locus the soul of the seer gains no knowledge, inasmuch as it is a manifestation devoid of material form.
6. 'When my lightning,' etc., i.e. that manifestation took place in a lovely form, but my manifestation to thee is formless and inanimate and is not determined by love and passion.
11. 'The white tents,' in reference to the veils of light which are drawn over the splendours of the face of God.
1. O grief for my heart, O grief! O joy for my mind, O joy!
2. In my heart the fire of passion is burning, in my mind the full moon of darkness hath set.
3. O musk! O full moon! O bough of the sand-hills! How green is the bough, how bright the moon, how sweet the musk!
4. O smiling mouth whose bubbles I loved! and O saliva in which I tasted white honey!
5. O moon that appeared to us veiled in a red blush of shame upon thy cheek!
6. Had she removed her veil, it would have been a torment, and on this account she veiled herself.
7. She is the morning sun rising in a heaven, she is the bough of the sand-hills planted in a garden.
8. Fear made me watch her incessantly while I watered the bough with falling rain.
9. If she riseth, she will be a wonder to mine eye, or if she setteth she will be a cause of my death.
10. Since Beauty bound on her head a diadem of unwrought gold, I am in love with gold that has been wrought.
11. If Iblís had seen in Adam the brilliance of her face, he would not have refused to worship him.
12. If Idrís had seen the lines that Beauty limned on her cheeks, then he would never have written.
13. If Bilqís had seen her couch, the throne and the pavement would not have occurred to her mind.
14. O sarḥ tree of the valley and O bán tree of the thicket, deliver to us of your perfume, by means of the zephyr,
15. A musky odour which exhales its fragrance to us from the flowers of thy lowlands or the flowers of the hills.
16. O bán tree of the valley, show us a branch or some twigs that can be compared with her tenderness!
17. The zephyr's breeze tells of the time of youth spent at Ḥájir or Miná or Qubá,
18. Or at the sand-hills and where the vale bends beside the guarded pasture or at La‘la‘, where the gazelles come to browse.
19. Do not wonder, do not wonder, do not wonder at an Arab passionately fond of the coy beauties,
20. Who, whenever a turtle-dove moans, is thrilled by the remembrance of his beloved and passes away.
1. 'O grief for my heart': he fears that the anguish of love will destroy this body by the mediation of which he has acquired the Divine sciences. Although most souls desire to be stripped thereof and to return to their elemental world, yet in the opinion of profound theosophists abstraction from the body should only be sought through ecstasy and self-annihilation, not by dissolving the connexion of body and soul.
'O joy for my mind,' because the mind is the locus in which the Truth is contemplated.
2. 'The full moon of darkness hath set': in reference to the Tradition, 'Ye shall see your Lord as ye see the moon on the night when she is full.'
'Darkness,' i.e. the invisible world. He describes the moon as having set in the sensible world and risen in his mind.
3. 'O musk,' i.e. breathing Divine mercy.
'O full moon,' because her light is borrowed from the Light of God, and because she is a mirror for Him who manifests Himself in her.
'O bough of the sand-hills,' referring to the quality of Self-subsistence.
'How green is the bough!' i.e. clothed with Divine Names.
4. 'Bubbles': as water is the source of all life, the bubbles signify the sciences of Divine mercy which appear from the Divine Life when the breaths (of mercy) flow.
'Saliva,' i.e. sciences of communion and converse and speech which leave a delicious taste in the heart.
5. God is described as bashful in an Apostolic Tradition.
6. 'Had she removed her veil,' etc.: according to the tradition, 'God hath seventy thousand veils of light and darkness; if He were to remove them, the splendours of His face would consume all that His sight perceives.' Therefore
He keeps Himself veiled in mercy to us, in order that our substance may survive, for in the survival of the substance of phenomenal being the Divine Presence and its lovely Names are manifested, and this is the beauty of phenomenal being; if it perished, thou wouldst not know, since all kinds of knowledge are divulged by means of forms and bodies.
7. 'In a heaven,' referring to the form in which the manifestation takes place. The form varies according to the variety of beliefs and cognitions; and this is what is called 'transformation'. Some gnostics, e.g. Qaḍíb al-Bán, attain to this station in a sensible form. Its spiritual form comprises all the mystical states of mankind.
'The bough of the sand-hills,' the quality of Self-subsistence in the garden of the Divine Names.
'Planted' refers to the investiture with this quality, a doctrine which is contrary to that of Ibn Junayd and others. We agree, however, as to its realization, although I deny the possibility of realizing anything which cannot be an object of such investiture, since it is not to be apprehended by feeling: it may be known symbolically, but not emotionally.
8. 'Fear made me watch her,' i.e. in fear of being veiled from her I began to behold her in everything and before everything, regarding everything as depending on her and immanent (in God) before its creation.
'I watered the bough,' in order that the Divine sciences which it contains might bear fruit in me.
9. 'She will be a wonder,' for it is wonderful that Man in his abasement should apprehend God in His glory.
10. 'Beauty,' i.e. a locus of ocular manifestation in the station of severance in which Man is discriminated from God.
'Unwrought gold,' referring to her freedom from contact with phenomena.
'Gold that has been wrought': gold denotes the quality
of perfection which is attained by completing the series of stations. It is described as wrought, because God's manifestation to us by means of ourselves is actual, whereas His manifestation to us by means of Himself is not.
12. Idrís typifies the speculative theologian.
13. 'Her couch,' i.e. her lofty degree.
'Her mind': [Ar.], for bál (mind), because [Ar.], (bá), the second letter of the alphabet, signifies Universal Reason, which is the second category of Being.
15. 'From the flowers of thy lowlands,' i.e. the station of Divine Revelation which descends in the Sunna of the Apostle and in the revealed scriptures.
'The flowers of the hills,' i.e. the most inaccessible veil of the Divine glory.
16. Man seeks God in want and in desire to receive, whereas God seeks Man in wealth and in desire to give.
17. 'The zephyr's breeze,' etc., i.e. the sciences wafted into the heart from the revelation and manifestation of God in diverse stations.
18. 'At the sand-hills,' i.e. the mount of Vision.
'Where the vale bends,' i.e. the station of Mercy, which allows the human essence to subsist 'beside the guarded pasture', i.e. at the manifestation of the Divine essence.
'At La‘la‘,' i.e. in the frenzy of love.
19. Do not wonder at a thing which yearns for its original home.
20. 'A turtle-dove,' i.e. the soul of a gnostic like himself, whose sublime utterance excites in him a longing for God.
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