This Preface is wholly omitted in Dow’s paraphrase, or rather summary, (for it cannot with any propriety be called a translation) of part of the following work.

THE fittest Introduction to the most pure volume of creation, and most becoming ornament of the pages of knowledge and learning, is the praise of the Lord, the Bestower of Wisdom, Creator of Speech, and Revealer of the Properties of Invention and Production; WHO, in his wonderful volumes and original performances, has given ample testimony of his Omnipotence—from the Moon down to the Fish—and, from the Atom up to the Sun, has proclaimed the declaration of his own divine Unity of Person, and supreme Self-existence. The speech of the blessed, inwardly-wakeful, from the light of his properties is ever brilliantly eloquent; and the hearts of the virtuous, like purity itself, from the splendid rays of the comprehension of his qualities, are objects of envy to the dazzling beams of the sun and moon.

O munificent Bestower of orna­ment on the diversified assemblage of creation! Such differing appear­ances and variegated designs—except the pen of thy omnipotence—what could delineate on the pages of appearance? Excepting thy consum­mate skill, what could display, in this many-coloured scenery, such variety of differing forms and con­trasted manners?

As for the speculations of the mystery-weighing balancers of fate and destiny, have they not accumu­lated such a mass of difficulty in defining the subtilties of thy opera­tions, as they cannot explain?—— And on the tongue of the paradox-solving acuteness of the most emi­nent in science and philosophy—in searching into the origin of thy sublime properties—has not such an impediment fallen, that it cannot express them?

Monstrous vanity and self-suf­ficiency!—On a subject, on which the most pure inhabitants of the highest heavens confess their inability of comprehension, and the profound reflection (equal to most abstrusities) of the sublimely-minded dwellers of the upper world, in examining the minutest point of his divine qualities, owns its ignorance and defect————What powers can there exist in us lingerers in the cell of mortality and decay, with such inferior abilities, that we should fancy ourselves able to measure the labyrinth of the unbounded regions of his Divinity——? Or to us, pur­suers of vanity and weakly-founded conjecture, with such degraded nature—What ability is there—— that we should, with the labour of thought, or ken of speculation, dis­cover applicable attributes to distin­guish his all-glorious Majesty?

Since then it is evident to the explorers of the path of wisdom, and this clear proposition needs not the elucidation of further argument, namely, that the defective contem­plations of MAN, with the assistance of his weakly-founded faculties, cannot suitably praise the sublime Inventor of Speech; and that the CREATURE, with the calculations of idea and the line of conjecture, cannot measure the surface of THE CREATOR’S glories:———With­drawing, therefore, the messenger of speculation from winding farther this hazardous path——I proceed to give new beauty, vividness, and glow to the perpetually blooming rose-garden of eloquence, by kindly showers from the sky of bounty; namely, by the auspicious praise of the Sublime in Dignity,* worthy of the distinguished salutation, “If thou hadst not existed, I would not have created the Heavens.”*

The expanse of the seven grada­tions of the orb of the universe, from the space-adorning rays of his perfections, received undecaying splendour; and the truth-flashing edicts of sacred mission from the divan of Omnipotence acquired the glory of promulgation, by being issued in the name of that most perfect Being, and thus declaring, “What God first created, was Light.”*

O brilliant pearl of the sea of bounty, the clear lustre of the words of whose miraculous composition, has made the sacred collar of the humble contemplative, the horizon of the sun of truth!* O inestimable gem of the mine of existence, the rays of whose enlightening scrip­ture, clearly proving the important truths of divine revelation, are as a lamp placed before the face to point out the path of true knowledge to the wanderers in the darkness of error!

In his most pure praise, if my speech should boast itself with exul­tation, it may be allowed; or should I compare the strokes of my pen to the rays of the sun, it may be permitted; for I have to delineate expres­sions from my tongue, becoming the qualities of a personage so exalted, that the Lord of heaven wrote the volume of the world in his sub­lime name. The omnipotent Designer of Eloquence, in order to grace the poetry of general existence, made his auspicious name the exordium of the Dewan* of crea­tion, and his person, far above all human praise, the (Mukkutta) basis of the eulogy of the true faith.

The eloquent reed,* planted in a bountiful soil, having, by virtue of the above heart-pleasing subject and sublime discussion, been spiring like the sugar-cane to a standard of true sweetness; and from the auspicious influence of such a fancy-warming theme, having, like the arrow of the heavens, become the gaze of the admirers of composition; I proceed to grace the ears of time with a newly invented pendant of rhetoric, by writing an introduction to the following sublime volume, justly meriting applause and success, which the judgment of truth has entitled THE GARDEN OF KNOWLEDGE, and which was composed in the year of the hijherra one thousand and sixty one.*

What gives brilliancy to the contents of this composition, and charms to the beauty of this narra­tive, is, the History of the Loves of the Adorner of the Throne of the court of Elegance and Grace, the exalted Prince JEHAUNDAR SHAW, and of the Light of the Lamp of the Recess of Royalty and Chastity, the Princess BHERAWIR BANOU; with relations suitable to the cir­cumstances of those enamoured and constant personages. The whole are pourtrayed fully, by the truth-delineating pen of the master of composition, the informed in the rules of elegant writing and forms of rhetoric, displayer of the varieties of language, arranger of the beauties of select compilation, possessor of the reflecting mirror of the visions of fancy, adorner of the nuptial cham­ber of invention, ornamenter of the audience sopha of the brides of novelty, gracer of the assembly of newly established phrases, designer of the garden of diversified expression, the skilled in the powers of language, the asylum of litera­ture, the fully-acquainted with the pulse of the pen, the informed of the constitution of eloquence, EINAIUT OOLLAH, whose bosom friend is elegant diction, and rhetoric has innate connection with his nature.

The slave travelling in the path of affection, and cherished with the salt* of true attachment, devoted to the path of the descendants of MAHUMMUD SALEH—who, with that virtuous personage (EINAIUT OOLLA) enjoys the connection of relation and pupil—in attempting to display some account of his produc­tion, hath thus expressed his own ideas, and to the extent of his ability (with good intention) given a specimen of the elegant blossoms (phrases) of this newly discovered shrub in the garden of ingenuity; whose various beauties of high import excite admiration, and whose diversified elegancies, inspiring veneration, exceed all praise. The introduction of them into the circle of composition rises superior to the plaudits of the most vivid fancy, and the brilliancy of their elegancies disdains the flattery (ornaments) of verse or prose, or the borrowed lustre of comparison or metaphor.