1. لما شهدت الذي سوّى حقيقته

    في ذاتِ أكمل مخلوقٍ من البشرِ

    When I witnessed the one who fashioned his reality

    in the essence of the most perfect creature among humankind,

  2. يخصه اسم وما الأسماء تحصره

    وليس شيئاً له نعتٌ بمنحصرِ

    a name singles him out, yet names do not confine him;

    nor is he a thing whose attribute is bounded,

  3. لأنه قائم بكلِّ ما وصفتْ

    به الذواتُ من التنزيه والغير

    for he subsists through all that is ascribed

    to essences—transcendence and change.

  4. سبحانَ من أوجد الأشياء من عدمٍ

    ومن ثبوتِ وجودٍ غيرِ مختصر

    Glory be to the One who brought things into being from nonexistence,

    and from the fixity of an unabridged existence.

  5. في عينه أو عيونِ الخلقِِ يظهره

    أحكامها بالذي فيها من الصور

    In its essence, or in the essences of creation, it is manifested

    by their determinations, through the forms within them.

  6. وكله خارجٌ عن عينِ صورته

    بما له في وجودِ العينِ من سور

    And all of it lies outside the essence of its form,

    through the walls it has in the existence of the essence.

  7. الحقُّ أوجدَه والكون عينه

    بما لديه من الآياتِ والسور

    The Real brought it into being, and the cosmos is its very essence,

    through the signs and surahs it possesses.

  8. في كلِّ آيةِ تنزيه له علم

    به يشبهه من كان ذا نظر

    In every verse of transcendence he has a sign,

    through which one with insight likens him.

  9. فالحكم يشفعه والعينُ توتره

    والعقلُ ينكر ما يتلوه من خبر

    Thus judgment pairs him, while the essence makes him single,

    and reason denies what he recites of tidings.

  10. جل الإله فما تُحصى مشاهده

    قد حاز فيه وجودُ العقل والبصر

    Exalted is God; his manifestations cannot be counted.

    The existence of reason and sight has indeed encompassed them in him,

  11. لأنه يتعالى في نزاهته

    عن العقولِ وعما كان في الفطر

    for in his purity he is exalted

    above intellects and whatever lies in innate natures.

  12. لذا يقولُ رسول الله نحن به

    كما يكون له فانهض على قدر

    Thus the Messenger of God says: 'We are through him,

    just as it is for him'; so rise in due measure.

  13. لو كان لي ما له لكنته وأنا

    إن كنته فأنا منه على خطر

    If I had what he has, I would be him; and I,

    if I were him, would be in peril from him.

  14. لكن أقول أنا إن قلته بأنا

    عين الوجودِ الذي في الحق من يسر

    But I say—if I utter it as 'I'—'I am

    the very existence that, in the Real, is of ease.'

  15. فالصورُ ليس له والعينُ ليس لنا

    وباجتماعهم لي ينقضي وطري

    The forms, then, are not his, and the essence is not ours;

    and through their union for me, my desire is fulfilled.