QUESTION III.

What am I? tell me what “I” means?
What is the meaning of “Travel into yourself?”*

ANSWER III.

Again you question me, saying, “What am I?”
Give me news of myself as to what “I” means.
290 When Absolute Being has to be indicated
Men use the word “I” to express it.
When “The Truth” is set in evidence in a phenomenon
You express it by the word “I,”*
“I” and “you” are the accidents* of Very Being.
The lattices of the niches of the lamp of Necessary Being.*
Know bodies and spirits are all the One Light,
Now shining from mirrors, now from torches.
You say “The word ‘I’ in every connection”
“Indicates the reasonable soul of man;”
295 But as you have made human intellect your guide,
You do not know your ‘self’ from one of your parts,
Go, O master, and know well your ‘self,’
For fatness does not resemble an empty tumour.*
“I” and “you” are higher than body and soul,
For both body and soul are parts of “me.”
The word “I” is not limited to man,
So that you should say it means only the soul.*

Straightway lift yourself above time and space,*
Quit the world and be yourself a world for yourself.*
300 By the imaginary line of the H of the “He”*
Are produced two eyes at the time He looks forth.*
But there remain not in the midst pilgrim or road,
When this H of the “He” is joined to the H in Allah.
Necessary Being is as Heaven and Hell as contingent,
“I” and “you” are the Hades veil between them.*
When this veil is lifted up from before you,*
There remains not the bond of sects and creeds.
All the authority of the law is over this “I” of yours,
Since that is bound to your soul and body.*
305 When “I” and “you” remain not in the midst,
What is mosque, what is synagogue, what is fire temple?
Phenomenal being is as the dot on 'ayn,
When 'ayn is clear, ghayn becomes 'ayn.*
The journey of the pilgrim is two steps and no more,
Although it is beset by divers perils.
One step is the passing out from that H of “He,”*
The second is passing over the field of existence.
In this holy vision plurality and individuals are one,*
Like one which pervades all numbers.
310 You are that plurality which becomes very Unity*
You are that Unity which becomes very plurality.
A man may know this mystery when he passes forth
From the part, and travels up to the whole.