pry into my sins; but what, O Omniscience! can a closed door avail
against thee, who art equally informed of what is manifest or concealed?


XXIII

I lodged a complaint with one of our reverend Shaikhs, saying: "A
certain person has borne testimony against my character on the score of
lasciviousness." He answered, "Shame him by your continence.--Be thou
virtuously disposed, that the detractor may not have it in his power to
indulge his malignity. So long as the harp is in tune, how can it have
its ear pulled (or suffer correction by being put in tune) by the
minstrel?"


XXIV

They asked one of the Shaikhs of Sham, or Syria, saying: "What is the
condition of the Sufi sect?" He answered, "Formerly they were in this
world a fraternity dispersed in the flesh, but united in the spirit; but
now they are a body well clothed carnally, and ragged in divine
mystery." Whilst thy heart will be every moment wandering into a
different place, in thy recluse state thou canst not see purity; but
though thou possessest rank and wealth, lands and chattels, if thy heart
be fixed on God, thou art a hermit.


XXV

On one occasion we had marched, I recollect, all the night along with