Cast out that beam...

Cast out that beam; make clear thy eye from every mote; Then mayst thou entertain the hope to see his cote." Whoever shall his heart cleanse from all passions’ bale, Will soon perceive therein a court and presence hale. 25 When Ahmed's heart was cleansed of evil's fire and smoke, 1 Whichever way he turned, God's countenance bespoke. 2 So long as man keeps company with evil thought, How can he understand God's countenance in aught?

He that a window's pierced from heart towards heaven's recess, Sees in each mote a ray from Sun of Righteousness. 3 God shines apparent in the midst of other things, As moon in majesty among the stars’ twinklings. Place thou two finger-tips upon thy two eyeballs. What seest thou now of all the world? Darkness befalls. 30 Thou seest it not; but that the world exists, thou’lt trust. Our vices are the finger-tips of fleshly lust.

Thy finger-tips remove; instanter , as before, Thou lookest around and seest whate’er thou wilt explore. His people asked of Noah where righteousness might be. He said: "Lo, there! With muffled heads you cannot see. You've wrapped your cloaks in folds about your heads and eyes. Your sense of sight cannot see what before you lies." The world's eye man is; all the rest's mere skin and shell. A real eye's he who strives his "Friend" to see right well.

4 35 Unless we see our Friend, ’twere better we were blind, A friend that is not constant's better out of mind. When Rome's ambassador had heard those words so wise, 5 His eager curiosity began to rise. He sought for ‘Umer with redoubled zeal and zest; But in so doing lost his horse, and eke his chest. He wandered everywhere to seek the Caliph out. Like one distracted asked each passer-by his route.

"Is’t possible," he said, "that such a man there be, 40 When like the soul to sight invisible is he?" He sought for him as though he ’d been his truant slave, But: "He who seeks shall find" ’s a very well-known stave. A desert-Arab woman saw he at the last, Who told him ‘Umer, then, beneath date-palm slept fast. Beneath a date-palm! Far from mankind's busy plod. That date-palm's shadow shaded the Shadow of God!

1 He went towards the tree; a station took afar; He saw ‘Umer; a fit of trembling showed his fear. On that ambassador did awe and dread alight. 45 While o’er his heart there stole a sense of sweet delight. Two feelings, love and dread, by nature opposites, Were mingled in his bosom by some occult rites.