إنَّ الذي أظهر الأعيان لو ظهرا

ما زاد حكماً على الأمر الذي ظهرا

Indeed, He who made the entities appear—were He Himself to appear,

He would add no further determination to what had already appeared.

هو الجليُّ الخفيُّ في تصرُّفه

فليس يظهر منه غيرُ ما ظهرا

He is the Manifest, the Hidden, in all His working;

nothing appears from Him except what has appeared.

مُقدَّس الذاتِ عن إدراكِ ما ظهرا

لكنه يهبُ الأرواح والصورا

His Essence is sanctified beyond the apprehension of all that appears,

for He bestows both spirits and forms.

فكلُّ صورة روحٍ عينُ صورتِه

وهو الذي عين الأفلاكِ والبشرا

Thus every spirit’s form is that spirit’s very form,

and He it is who determined the celestial spheres and humankind—

من آدمَ خمرت يداه طينته

بذاك سمِّي في ما قد روى بشرا

beginning with Adam, whose clay His hands kneaded.

For that, as has been related, he was named bashar, a human being.

لما أتى من وراء السّتر كلمني

وما رأيتُ له عَيناً ولا خبرا

When He came from behind the veil, He spoke to me,

yet I saw neither His very self nor any trace.

علمت أنَّ حجابي لم يكن أحداً

غيري فلم أتعب الألبابَ والفكرا

I knew then that my veil had been no one

but myself; and so I did not weary minds and thought.

فما رأيتَ وجودَ الحقِّ في أحد

إلا رأيت له في كونِه أثرا

Never have I seen the existence of the Real in anyone

without seeing, in that being, a trace of Him.