Childhood Friends

When he tests our coin on the touchstone, he can distinguish certainty from doubt.  
When his soul becomes the touchstone of coins, he can see the counterfeit and the genuine.  
The kings seat the Sufi mystics before them so that their eyes may be enlightened by them.  
It was the custom of kings, you might have heard this if you remember.  
The heart polished by remembrance and thought, so the mirror of the heart accepts the pure image.  
Whoever is born from the good nature, a mirror should be placed before him.  
The lover of the mirror is the beautiful face, the polish of the soul and the piety of hearts.  
The arrival of a guest to Joseph, peace be upon him, and Joseph's request for a gift.  
A kind friend came from afar and became a guest of Joseph the Truthful.  
They were acquainted from childhood, relying on the pillow of familiarity.  
He reminded him of the brothers' cruelty and envy, saying that was a chain and we were lions.  
A lion is not ashamed of chains, nor do we complain about the decree of God.  
If a lion has a chain around its neck, it is the master of all chain-makers.  
He asked how it was in the prison and the well, he said it was like being in an eclipse and the moon was diminished.  
In the eclipse, if the new moon becomes two, it will eventually become full in the sky.  
Though the pearl was crushed in the mortar, it became the light of the eye and heart and saw high.  
A grain was thrown under the soil, then from its soil, ears of grain were made.  
Once again, it was ground in the mill, its value increased and it became life-giving bread.  
Again, the bread was crushed under the teeth, it became intellect and soul and wise understanding.  
Again, when that soul became absorbed in love, it became pleasing to the sower after the harvest.  
This speech has no end, return to what the good man said to Joseph.  
After telling the story, he said, "O so-and-so, what gift have you brought us?"  
At the door of friends, empty-handed, O young man, is like being without grain in the mill.  
God Almighty will say to the people on the Day of Resurrection, "Where is the gift for the day of publication?"  
"You came to us alone and destitute, just as we created you."  
What have you brought as a means, a gift for the Day of Resurrection?  
Or did you not hope for your return, did today's promise seem false to you?  
Do you deny the promise of His hospitality, then you take dust and ashes from the kitchen?  
If you are not a denier, why do you enter the door of that friend empty-handed?  
Save a little from sleep and food, bring a gift for meeting Him.  
Be of those who sleep little at night, be among those who seek forgiveness at dawn.  
Move a little like a fetus, so that they grant you senses that see light.  
And when you leave the world like a womb, you will be in the vast expanse of the earth.  
Those who said the earth of God is vast, know it as the expanse where the prophets have gone.  
The heart does not become narrow in that wide expanse, the fresh palm does not dry its branches there.  
You are now carrying your senses, you become weary and upside down.  
When you are carried, not carrying, at the time of sleep, weariness goes and you become without toil and trouble.  
Consider the state of sleep as a taste, before being carried, the state of the saints.  
The saints are the companions of the cave, O stubborn one, in standing and turning, they are also asleep.  
They are drawn without effort in action, unaware of the right and left.  
What is the right? Good deeds. What is the left? The occupations of the body.  
Both these actions proceed from the prophets, unaware of both like a sound.  
If your sound makes good and evil heard, the essence of the mountain is unaware of both.  
The guest said to Joseph, peace be upon him, that I brought you a mirror as a gift so that whenever you look into it and see your beautiful face, you remember me.  
Joseph said, "Bring the gift," and out of shame for this request, he cried out.  
He said, "I sought many gifts for you, but no gift came to my mind."  
How can I take a grain to the mine, how can I take a drop to the ocean?  
How can I bring cumin to Kerman, if I bring you heart and soul?  
There is no seed in this storehouse that is not, except your beauty which has no peer.  
I deemed it fitting to bring you a mirror, like the light of the heart.  
So you may see your beautiful face in it, O you who are like the sun, the candle of the sky.  
I brought you a mirror, O light, so that when you see your face, you remember me.  
He took the mirror out of his pocket, the beautiful is occupied with the mirror.  
The clear mirror is hungry for its bread, the burnt one is also a mirror of the fire striker.  
Wherever there is non-existence and deficiency, the mirror of beauty is all professions.  
When the garment is tight and sewn, how can it be the manifestation of the tailor's skill?  
The unhewn logs are needed so that the carpenter can make the base or branches.  
The broken-bone master goes where there is a broken foot.  
How can the beauty of the medical craft be revealed when there is no sick and weak?  
The baseness and lowness of copper are evident, if not, how can alchemy be shown?  
Deficiencies are the mirror of the attribute of perfection, and that lowliness is the mirror of honor and glory.  
Because the opposite makes the opposite evident, because vinegar is evident with honey.  
Whoever sees and knows his own deficiency, he races towards his perfection.  
He does not fly towards the Lord of Glory, who assumes himself to be perfect.  
There is no worse ailment than the assumption of perfection in your soul, O you with charm.  
Much blood flows from your heart and eyes until this self-admiration leaves you.  
The ailment of Iblis was "I am better," and this disease is in the soul of every creature.  
Even if he sees himself very broken, know the clear water and the dung beneath the stream.  
When it stirs you in the test, the water becomes dung-colored in an instant.  
At the bottom of the stream is dung, O young man, even if the stream appears clear to you.  
The wise guide, the one who knows the way, is the one who digs the gardens of the soul.  
How can one purify his own stream? The beneficial knowledge of God became the knowledge of man.  
How can a blade carve its own handle? Entrust this wound to the surgeon.  
Flies gather on every wound so that no one sees the ugliness of his own wound.  
Those flies are your thoughts and wealth, your wound is the darkness of your states.  
If the elder puts ointment on that wound, then the pain and wailing will be quieted.  
Until he thinks he has found health, the ointment's light has shone there.  
Do not lift your head from the ointment, O wounded back, and know it from the light, not from your own essence.