1. I commanded but did not hear, I called but got no response
Oh, would that I knew who is the Lord and who the servant!

2. You hid from me in me, so I said it was I
You appeared but did not shy away, I hid but did not last

3. You sought me from me but I saw none but you
So does the judgment of before and after hold firm?

4. I sat with you, from you, due to my being your being
But when we sat, you rose and strode before us

5. To you I hope my existence appears to you
And I found it in a name called the Unique

6. For your beautiful names abound in its existence
And without that there would be no distance

7. So one who enumerates them finds Paradise
And one who counts them has the limit

8. For me is distance from you and nearness to your name
So my distance to you is nearness and my nearness remoteness

9. When you give bliss you find me thankful
And if you do not give me, still to you belongs praise

10. Our boat is sought by the proof of your existence
And its parts by the essence seek the limit

11. So one who stands by the parts, the limit hastens him
And one who stands by the composition, his proof is critique

12. So how many a place its protector made forbidden
And how many a predicate his effort aids

13. When the mantle of speech wraps my essence
In solving my composition lies his intent

14. So it severs me while it subdues the essence
When the purpose is attained, the effort's discharge

15. I accompany him until what brought me to him is spent
Then I turn back on my heels and stride away

16. He carries me off, who was present within me
When what the pact contained collapsed from me

17. And I do not sanction by what I have said
A people, but I inherited and did not renew

18. The spirit comes and goes from me one day when commanded
And I have no say however it comes to me

19. I play the chess of intellects, arranging
And for me in what appears, agreement or refusal

20. And the scholar plays with dice though he knows
What's sought from his play and dice

21. Between them lies chess of dice for one who sees
And fulfills for him what his contract faces

22. Authority over secrets was assumed by his love's sultanate
And a secret triumphed whose sultan was love

23. It has sanctities in designated months
So one is unique and the rest enumerated

24. When you witness existence, his existence is its witness
By what he gives it of his eternal power

25. But by the wind he is a spirit, his remaining
We call it in our convention breath and kindling

26. So it acts the deeds of light and fire, name it
As they have extinguishing, blaming and praise

27. So live prosperously when its benefits spread
And mercy, and binding when checking spreads

28. Thus do the stars covet its benefits
And in their abodes lions dread it