1. A lightning-cloud gleamed at Dhát al-Aḍá, with light flashing over the plain thereof,
2. And the thunder of its secret converse cracked, and its rain-cloud let fall copious showers.
3. They called to one another: 'Make the camels kneel!' but they did not listen, and I in my passion cried out: 'O driver,
4. Alight here and abide, for I love one who is with you,
5. A woman, slender, lissome, of fresh beauty, for whom the heart of the sad lover is longing.'
6. The assembly is filled with fragrance at the mention of her, and every tongue utters her name.
7. And if her seat were a valley (but her throne is a high mountain),
8. The low ground would be made high by her: he who looks enviously shall never attain to that height.
9. By her is every desert peopled, and by her is every mirage transformed to abundant water,
10. And by her is every meadow made bright, and by her is every wine made clear.
11. My night is radiant with her face, and my day is dark with her hair.
12. The core of my heart, when the Cleaver shot it through with her arrows,
13. Was cloven by eyes which are accustomed to aim at the entrails, and none of their shafts misses the mark.
14. No owl in desert places, no ring-dove or croaking raven
15. Is more unlucky than a full-grown camel which they saddled, that it might carry away one whose beauty is surpassing,
16. And might leave at Dhát al-Aḍá a passionate lover slain, although in love of them he is true.
1. 'A lightning-cloud,' i.e. a manifestation of the Essence.
'Dhát al-Aḍá,' in Tiháma, i.e. the station of abasement pertaining to exaltation, for God exalts those who humble themselves before Him.
'Light,' i.e. the light of exaltation.
4. 'Here,' i.e. beside one who seeks and loves you.
'One who is with you': he addresses the sciences imparted to him by this manifestation. Inasmuch as they are sought,
not for their own sake but only for the sake of that on which they are dependent, he says that he desires to approach that by means of them.
5. 'A woman,' etc., i.e. a Divine attribute which manifested itself in the world of similitude.
7, 8. Her sublimity exalts everyone in whom she dwells.
'A high mountain,' i.e. the heart of the gnostic.
'He who looks enviously,' etc.: the Divine essence is unknowable.
9. 'Every desert,' i.e. every heart laid waste by forgetfulness of God.
10. 'Wine,' i.e. spiritual delight.
11. He says: 'I have gained knowledge of the invisible world from her hair, and knowledge of the visible world from her face, and my visible world produces her as an invisible being to the eye,' i.e. I have the power of appearing in different forms, like al-Khaḍir and some saints, e.g. Qaḍíb al-Bán.
12. 'The Cleaver,' i.e. God, in reference to Kor. vi, 95, 96.
13. 'Was cloven,' etc., i.e. by the sciences and manifestations of the Divine Ideas.
14-16. The most unlucky of all things is any ecstasy that intervenes between thee and this Divine attribute, for ecstasy takes possession of the heart, so that the mystery of the Almighty which was illuminated by this Essential Manifestation is left neglected and without power to retain that which has already been revealed to it.
1. Our talk between al-Ḥaditha and al-Karkh recalls to me the period of youth and its prime.
2. I said to myself: 'After fifty years, when through long meditation I have become as weak as a young bird,
3. It recalls to me the neighbourhood of Sal‘ and Ḥájir, and brings to my mind the period of youth and its prime,
4. And the driving of the camels up hill and down dale, and
my kindling fire for them by rubbing the ‘afár and the markh together.' 1
1-3. He says: 'Our praise of God, telling of the Divine Revelation, recalls to me the time of pilgrimage in the station where the veils were rent and lifted from me by acts of devotion that produced spiritual feelings and aspirations of which I was unconscious, and brings me back from my present state of acting in unveiledness and without being conscious of consciousness to the former state of acting in which I was veiled.'
4. 'My kindling fire,' etc., i.e. the things generated by veiled secondary causes whereby the reality is doubly disguised.
1. I respond with diverse notes of grief to every cooing dove perched upon a bough in a grove.
2. She weeps for her mate without tears, but from my eyelids the tears of sorrow are streaming.
3. I say to her, when my eyelids have shed their abundant tears in token of my inward state,
4. 'Hast thou any knowledge of those whom I love, and did they rest at midday in the shadows of the branches?'
1. 'Every cooing dove,' i.e. subtle spiritual essences which appear in forms of the intermediate world.
2. 'From my eyelids,' etc.: because of my bodily existence.
4. 'Did they rest,' etc., i.e. did they show themselves in the shades of this natural organism, so that I may seek them there?
1. At the hill among the mountains of Zarúd are haughty lions, by the looks of lissome women
2. Overthrown, though they were bred in the carnage of war. What match are the lions for the black eyes?
3. The women's looks murdered them. How sweet are those looks from the daughters of kings!
1. 'Haughty lions,' i.e. aspiring and courageous hearts.
'Lissome women,' i.e. the Divine Ideas.
3. 'From the daughters of kings,' referring to Kor. liv, 55: 'In the presence of a puissant king.'
1. Three full moons, unadorned by any ornament, went forth to at-Tan‘ím with veiled faces.
2. They unveiled shining faces like suns and cried with a loud voice 'Labbayka', visiting the holy shrines.
3. And they approached, walking slowly as the qaṭá birds walk, in gowns of striped Yemen cloth.
1. Three Divine Names went forth from the Divine Presence to at-Tan‘ím, desiring to manifest their traces, i.e. their bliss consists in such manifestation. 'With veiled faces,' lest anyone who was unable to endure the sight of their splendour should behold them and perish.
2. 'They unveiled,' i.e. in the heart that was prepared to receive them.
'The holy shrines,' i.e. this noble heart.
3. 'In gowns of striped Yemen cloth,' i.e. graced by the subordinate Names which attended them like priests.
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