Sol 5.6

  1. Indeed, the soul has wide-ranging journeys in sleep,

    a creation of the Almighty, the All-Wise—exalted is He.

  2. It is a soul whose darkness endures,

    and it is a spirit whose lights shimmer.

  3. Thus the two are one, yet two in description—

    feminine and masculine within a single frame.

  4. God placed the power of reason within it,

    and so in sleep it beholds all forms.

  5. While a person lies asleep in one place,

    it roams the earth, its plains and mountains—

  6. now in a vision that comes like the radiance of dawn,

    and now in another vision that comes as fantasy.

  7. It journeys between the heights and the depths,

    though, while inside the vessel, it seeks no departure.

  8. For a time it remained joined to its vessel; then, when

    it left it unwillingly, it refused to reunite.

  9. It rose aloft toward everlasting life,

    while the vessel turned at last to dust.

  10. God shall restore a soul to a body,

    swiftly reuniting this one with that.

  11. The philosopher—though he is a liar—claimed

    that the return of bodies had become impossible.

  12. Yet restoration and first creation are alike

    to my Lord—and returning them is easier still.

  13. Whatever the God of all creation wills

    to exist shall exist, without fail.

  14. Humanity’s disagreement concerning the soul is ignorance;

    the most searching inquiry only increases error.

  15. It is a created thing, yet no created being knows

    its true essence; wondrous indeed are its workings.

  16. A philosopher claimed to possess knowledge of it,

    with words that have misled the ignorant.

  17. And he claimed that its essence is eternal,

    as eternal as the Lord—exalted is my Lord in majesty!

Sol 5.6