The beloved asked the lover, "Who do you love more, yourself or me?"
He said, "I have died from myself and live through you.
I have become nothing from myself and exist through you.
I have forgotten my own knowledge and have become knowledgeable through yours.
I have forgotten my own power and have become powerful through yours.
If I love myself, I love you, and if I love you, I love myself.
Whoever has the mirror of certainty, though self-seeing, sees God.
I emerged with my attributes to my creation; whoever sees you sees me, and whoever seeks you seeks me."
The beloved said to the lover, testing him,
"In the morning, O so-and-so, son of so-and-so,
Do you love me more, or yourself? Tell the truth, O distressed one."
He said, "I have become so annihilated in you
That I am filled with you from head to toe.
Of my own existence, nothing remains but a name;
In my being, there is nothing but you, O sweet one.
For this reason, I have become annihilated in this way,
Like vinegar in the sea of honey.
Like a stone that becomes pure ruby,
It becomes filled with the attributes of the sun.
The description of that stone does not remain within it;
It becomes filled with the sun's attributes inside and out.
After that, if it loves itself,
It is the sun's love, O youth.
And if it loves itself, O dear one,
It is surely its own love.
Whether it loves itself as pure ruby,
Or it loves the sun,
In these two loves, there is no difference;
Both sides are nothing but the light of the east.
Until it becomes a ruby, it is its own enemy,
For there is not one self there, but two.
For the stone is dark and blind by day,
Its darkness is the true opposite of light.
Whoever loves themselves is an infidel,
For they are a barrier to the greater sun.
Thus, the stone should not say 'I am,'
For it is all darkness and in annihilation.
Pharaoh said 'I am the truth' and was debased;
Mansur said 'I am the truth' and was saved.
For that 'I,' God's curse followed,
And for this 'I,' God's mercy, O beloved.
For he was a black stone, this a ruby;
That was an enemy of light, and this a lover.
This 'I' was in the secret, O meddler,
From the union of light, not from the opinion of incarnation.
Strive so that your stoniness becomes less,
So that your stone becomes more luminous as a ruby.
Be patient in struggle and hardship,
Moment by moment, see permanence in annihilation.
The description of the stone decreases every moment,
The description of the ruby becomes firm within you.
The description of existence leaves your body,
The description of intoxication increases in your head.
Become hearing entirely, an earring,
So that from the ring of the ruby, you find an earring.
Like what, make dust if someone
From this earthly body, so that you reach the water.
If the attraction of God reaches, the certain water,
The un-dug well will gush from the ground.
Work, do not be deaf to it;
Little by little, carve the earth of the well.
Whoever saw hardship, a treasure appeared;
Whoever was earnest, reached earnestness.
The Prophet said, bowing and prostration
Is knocking on the door of existence at the door of truth.