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THE TAIUUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (iV ) 57

2. And wluit liarin to her if slie cave me a creetinc in
O O O
rotmn ? But fair women are subject to no authority.
The}*^ journeyed wlien tlie darkness of night liad let down
its curtains, and I said to her, ‘ Pity a passionate
lover, outcast and distraught,
4. Whom desires eagerly encompa'ss and at whom .speeding
arrows are aimed wheresoever he bends his cour.se.’
5. She displayed her front-teeth and a levin fla.shed, and
I know not which oE the twain rent the gloom,
6. And she said, ! Is it not Tmough for him that I am in his
heart .and that he beholds me at eveiy moment ? Is
it not enough ? ’
COMMENTARV
1. ‘ Salma’ : he alludes to a Solomonic ecstasy (i'JU-
which descended upon him from the station of
Solomon in virtue of a prophetic heritage.
‘ In the preserve,’ i.e. an unattainable station, viz. prophecy,
whereof the gate was closed by Muhammad, the la.st of the
prophets. Solomon’s experience of this Divine wi.sdom
) iu so far as he was a prophet is different from his
experience of it in so far as he was a saint, and we share it
with him only in the latter case, since our experience of it
is derived from the saintship which is the greatest circle

2. God does nothing of necessity; whatever comes to us
from Him is by His favour. The author indicates this
statues ’ (i.e. women fair as marble statues). He means that
Divine Solomonic apparition (nulcta) by the term ‘ marble

she does not answer by .speech, for if she did so her speech
would be other than her es.sence, whereas her e.s.sence is
single, so that her advent is identical with her speech and
with her visible presence and with her hearing; and in this
respect .all the Divine Realities and Attributes re.seinble her.
3. ‘ They journeyed,’ etc.: the ascension of the prophets
always took place during the night, because night is the
time of my.stery and concealment.