From door and wall, unveiled, the Friend shines radiant, O ye who
have eyes to see!
Thou seekest a candle whilst the sun is on high: the day is very
bright whilst thou art in darkest night. ⁷⁵
If thou wilt but escape from thy darkness thou shalt behold all the
universe the dawning-place of lights.
Like a blind man thou seekest guide and staff for this clear and level
road.
Open thine eyes on the Rose-garden, and behold the gleaming of
the pure water alike in the rose and the thorn.
From the colourless water [are derived] a hundred thousand colours:
behold the tulip and the rose in this garden-ground.
Set thy foot in the path of search, and with Love furnish thyself with
provision for this journey. ⁸⁰
By Love many things will be made easy which in the sight of Reason
are very difficult.

Speak of the Friend in the mornings and the evenings: seek for
the Friend in the gloaming and at dawn.
Though they tell thee a hundred times ‘Thou shalt not see me,’ * still
keep thine eyes fixed on the Vision,
Until thou shalt reach a place to which the foot of Fancy and the
eye of Thought cannot attain.
Thou shalt find the Friend in an assembly whereunto not even
Gabriel the trusted hath access. ⁸⁵
This is the Road, this thy Provision, this the Halting-place: if thou
art a roadsman, come and bring!
And if thou art not equal to the Road, then, like the others, talk of
the Friend and scratch the back of thy head! *
O Hátif, the meaning of the Gnostics, whom they sometimes call
drunk and sometimes sober,
[When they speak] of the Wine, the Cup, the Minstrel, the Cup-
bearer, the Magian, the Temple, the Beauty and the Girdle,
Are those hidden secrets which they sometimes declare in cryptic
utterance. ⁹⁰
If thou shouldst find thy way to their secret thou wilt discover that
even this is the secret of those mysteries,

‘He is One and there is naught but He:
There is no God save Him alone!’