In the adorations and benedictions of righteous men
The praises of all the prophets are kneaded together.
All their praises are mingled into one stream,
All the vessels are emptied into one ewer.
Because He that is praised is, in fact, only One.
In this respect all religions are only one religion.
Because all praises are directed towards God's Light,
These various forms and figures are borrowed from it.
[Footnote 1: The night of his marriage with Safiyya.]
[Footnote 2: See _Rubáiyát_ of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward
FitzGerald, second edition, quatrain lxx.]
[Footnote 3: "Form" here is used rather as soul, the love behind
the decaying body.]
[Footnote 4: Joseph, a name frequently used by Persian poets,
irrespective of gender, to symbolise the ideal type of human
beauty.]
[Footnote 5: Earthly love.]
[Footnote 6: Koran.]
[Footnote 7: The meaning of this poem is strictly allegorical. We
must not infer that the All-Good would be a party to the
evil designs of the Devil. No material gifts, however seductive,
could succeed in stamping out the Divine Presence
in His Creatures.]
[Footnote 8: At first sight there seems to be Omarian pessimism
in this poem. In reality it signifies that all Love is One,
which shines through the ever-vanishing lanterns of the
world.]