أردّدُ طرفي في الرسرم فلا أرى

سوى من به كانت رسوما وآثارا

I turn my eyes to the painting, yet I see

I turn my gaze repeatedly among the traces, yet I see nothing

Nothing but traces of her who was depicted there

Except the One through whom they became traces and signs.

وأسألها عنه فكلّ أجابني

بأنه ما رآه يوما ولا أدرا

And when I ask about him, each tells me

I ask them about Him, and every one of them answers

That he never saw him, nor knew who he was

That it never saw Him for a single day, nor ever knew Him.

فقلت لهم هذا عجيب فإنني

ما أبصرته إلا بكم متظاهرا

So I say to them, how strange! For I

So I said to them: "This is wondrous, for truly I

Only saw him through your likeness portrayed there

Have not perceived Him except manifesting within you."

عرفته منكم ثم زاد في عرفاننا

بأنني إياه ولكن منكرا

I recognized him through you, and then grew

I recognized Him through you, then He increased my gnosis

To know him more, though denying him I was

Revealing that I am He, though I appeared as a stranger.

عجبت له كيف اختفى بظهوره

فعيني حجابه الظهور ولا انفرا

I marvel how he hid though revealing himself

I marveled at Him: how He concealed Himself through His own appearance,

My eye's veil to his revealing was its cover

For His manifestation was the veil upon my eye, not His withdrawal.

ألا فاعجبوا من ظاهرٍ في بطونه

ومن باطن لا زال باد وظاهرا

Behold and marvel then, at one whose outward self

So marvel at a Manifest One within His hiddenness,

Conceals, whose inward self remains manifest

And at an Inward Truth that remains ever visible and apparent.