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52 THE TAEJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (ll)

which, as as-Sayyari ^ said, there is no pleasure. She is

‘ wild inasmuch as noble souls desire to seize her, but she
does not show friendship to them, because no relation exists
between them and her.
‘ In her solitary chamber,’ i.e. in the heart. Her solitude
is her looking on herself, for God says, ‘ Neither My earth
nor My heaven contains Me, but I am contained by the heart
of My servant who is a believer ’ ; and since the heart which
contains this e.s.sential wisdom of. the race-of Jesus is bare
and empty of all attributes ^ ) , it is
like a desert and she is like a wild animal. Then he
mentions the marble tomb of the Roman emperors, that
sucli a mausoleum may remind her of death, which is the
.severance of union, and make her shun familiarity with the
created world on account of this severance.
8. The four Books (the Koran, the Psalms, the Tora, and
the Gospel) are here indicated by tlie mention of those who
study and expound them. All the sciences comprised in the
four Books point only to the Divine Names and are incapable
of solving a question that concerns the Divine Essence.
9. If this spiritual being, forasmuch as she is of the race
of Jesus, appeals to the Gospel by way of justifying it in
anything which men’s thoughts have falsely imputed to it,
we humble ourselves before her and serve her no le.ss
devotedly than do the heads of the Cliurth, because of her
majesty and sovereign might. a.scension
‘ Upon the road,’ i.e. tlie spiritual
10.
meant by his saying, ‘ Lo, the breath of the Merciful comes
‘ To grant me relief ’ : he means what the Prophet
11.

to me from the quarter of al-Yaman.’ The writer begs tliat
the world of breaths ^JU) may continually bo wafted
from her to him along with the spiritual feelings (Jl^^l)-

* Abu ’l-'Abbils as-SayyAH of Merv (died .342 a . u.). His doctrine of union
and separation explained by al-Hujwiri in the Ka»hf
al-Mahjuh.