One who pursues any craft which depends on reflection ought to be free from care and anxiety, for if it be otherwise, the arrows of his thought will fly wide and will not hit the target of achievement, since only by a tranquil mind can one arrive at such words.

It is related that a certain Secretary of the 'Abbásid Caliphs was writing a letter to the governor of Egypt; and, his mind being tranquil and himself submerged in the ocean of reflection, was forming sentences precious as pearls of great price and fluent as running water. Suddenly his maidservant entered, saying, “There is no flour left.” The scribe was so put out and disturbed in mind that he lost the thread of his diction, and was so affected that he wrote in the letter “There is no flour left.” When he had finished it, he sent it to the Caliph, having no know­ledge of these words which he had written.

When the letter reached the Caliph, and he read it, and saw this sentence, he was greatly astonished, being unable to account for so strange an occurrence. So he sent a messenger to summon the scribe, and enquired of him concerning this. The scribe was covered with shame, and gave the true explanation of the matter. The Caliph was mightily astonished and said: “The beginning of this letter excels the latter part by as much as the súra ‘Say, He is God, the One’*

excels the súra ‘The hands of Abú Lahab shall perish,’*

and it is a pity to surrender the minds of eloquent men like you into the hands of the struggle for the necessaries of life.” Then he ordered him to be given means sufficiently ample to prevent such an announcement as this from ever entering his ears again. Naturally it then happened that he could compress into two sentences the ideas of two worlds.