1. Had it not been for the beauty of the veil's mistress appearing,
The lost ones would not have found guidance, nor the wanderer the right path.

2. By her unveiling in her veil, had it not been for her voluptuousness,
He would not have been guided to her protection.

3. She called him, so the All-Hearing inclined toward her,
While the deaf man responded, obeying the echo.

4. And she made people think there was guidance in her aim,
Until he led his people astray, while he himself was not guided.

5. She is the one whom passion has stationed me before,
Standing at the hands of anguish, everlasting.

6. I can neither find solace from her nor
Cast on the length of her disdain, feeling at ease.

7. She has abandoned the fire of my heart, leaving it extinguished
For her hill, and the water of my eye as her watering place.

8. Her perfect grace drew her near
From her aloofness until she appeared as she appeared.

9. The world was perplexed by her beauty,
And the lovers in it became devoutly attached to her.

10. So I stand before the image of her shadow,
And I have become, for her cause, an atheist, gone astray.

11. While the mystic passes the night annihilating
From his essence whatever is evident to the eyes.

12. The peerless beauty whom I, because of my passion for her,
Have become solitary among mankind.

13. And through her I have become a community,
To which every lover comes for guidance.

14. The Sabians have turned to me when they saw
My gaze fixed upon the star of beauty in her.

15. And the Magi have taken my heart as their qibla,
When they saw in it a fire kindled for her.

16. I have not ceased being an expansionist, annexationist,
Pentagonist, trinitarianist, unitarianist.

17. And by me is guided, in love, whoever
Has dualized, triplicated, submitted, or Judaized.

18. The Shia of Truth have accepted my ways
And have taken me, in passion, as their place of pilgrimage.

19. The Hanifs have followed me when they saw
Me striving to follow her messengers.

20. The atheists have praised my path
When they saw me an atheist for her sake.

21. The wise gnostics have poured
My doctrine by removing descriptions of her and transcendence.

22. And imagined me embodied in describing her
In a form, so the embodied became embodied.

23. Yet they did not know that for her essence
I have become stripped of her attributes.

24. And in my prostration to the ideal of her beauty
She has left in my conscience a mosque for me.

25. So I do not see in the universe a single one
Who loves except that in it he follows me.

26. Never does a protector renew his protection
Unless I see his protection linked to mine.

27. For my abode has never ceased being a circle
That gathers those who have strayed from the path and those guided aright,

28. And everything outside of it, if you examine it,
You will find it derived from it.

29. No thirsty one comes to my spring
Except the echo fades from him.

30. Nor does a wanderer in his love for her follow me
Except he becomes a guide to the right path.

31. And if I am a slave to her love therein,
I have attained, for the lovers, mastery.