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THE TAliJLTMA.V AL-ASHWAQ (XXXV Ill, XXXIX) 123
the incapacity to acliieve perception.’ This involves seeing
God in everything.
‘ ilecca,’ i.e. the perfect lieart wliicli contains the Trutli.
‘ The Fartlicr Temple’ (Jerasalem), i.e. the station of
holiness and purity.
‘ Baghds'm,’ i.e. Baghdad, becau.se it is tlie abode of the
Qutb, in whom is the perfect manifestation of the form of
the Divine presence.
3. ‘ A daughter of Persia,’ i.e. a form of foreign Avisdom
connected \^ith Mo.ses, Jesus, Abraham, and
other foreigners of the same class.
‘ Whose eyelids are languid,’ i.e. she is tender and merciful.
4. ‘ The best (gift) after beauty and beneficence ’ : Gabriel
•said, ‘ Beneficence i!') consists in thy worshipping God
as though thou Avert seeing Him,’ and he added, ‘ for if thou
seest Him not, yet He sees thee.’ Hence ‘ the best gift ’ after
beneficence is God’s vision of thee.

XXXIX
1. 3Iy soul be the ransom of fair-complexioned and coy
vii-gins Avho played Avith me as I was kissing the
Pillar and the Stone!
2. Wl)en t h o u a r t lo s t in p m 's u it o f th e m , t lio u Avilt find n o
g u id e b u t in t h e ir s c e n t , t h e s w e e t e s t o f tr a c e s .
3. No moonless night darkened o’er me but I remembered
them and journeyed in moonlight.
4. Only when I Avalk in their company of riders does the
5. Hy lo v e u r g e d m e to d a llia n c e Avith o n e o f tlie m , a b e a u t y
night seem to me like the sun in the morning.

w h o h a t h n o s is t e r in h u m a n k in d ,
fi. If s h e u n v e ils h e r m o u t h , s h e Avill shoAV t o th e e Avhat
.s p a r k le s lik e t h e s u n in u n c h a n g in g r a d ia n c e .
<■ The Avhitcness of her forehead is the sun’s, the blackness

of the hair on her broAv is the niglit’s : most wondrous
of forms is slie— a sun and a night together !
Through lier we are in dayliglit during the night and in
a night of hair at noon.