1. I was told that a man called Aban
Was narrating a wondrous and amazing tale

2. About a bird that Bashar had brought roasted
One day, while Allah's Messenger was secluded

3. He brought it near him, but when he saw it, he prayed
To a Lord close to the virtuous and hidden

4. "Admit to me the most beloved of all people,
Who strives toward You, so grant him what he sought"

5. So he knocked at the door, knocking in wonder, and said to them
"Who is this?" while behind the door he was waiting

6. "Who is this?" So Ali said "He has a matter
That has concerned him today, so he secluded himself"

7. So he said "Do not seclude yourself from me, O Abul Hasan
One day he saw him sulking in secret

8. He who had turned him away the first time, and told him
"Enter and praise Allah and accept all He has granted"

9. Welcome, welcome to my intimate and trusted one
And the one for whom the Lord of the heavens has affection

10. Then Allah's Messenger said "O Anas
What confusion has addled you to make this up?"

11. "What led you to make my intimate and best of my people
Secluded from me today?"

12. So he said "O best of all Allah's creation
When I prayed to Allah seeking something

13. I wanted it to be from the Helpers, so that
It would give us status among our people"

14. So the secluded one prayed to his Lord in intimacy
To afflict him with an illness that brought hardship

15. So harm befell him until he was raised up
By fate until he died, waiting

16. "We found for him, in what we inform him
A connection to the Throne's handhold, a cause

17. A strong rope whose end he grasped
Misfortune pulled the knot and hardship taut

18. Whoever holds firm to the rope of his covenant
Will not be tomorrow in a state of ruin

19. A people went too far in their love of Ali
Having no father, and branding themselves for him in toil

20. They said "He is God, Glory be to God our Creator
That he could be the son of a mother or have a father"

21. So who steered the affairs of creation between them
When he was an infant or secluded in the womb?"