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niche! So I threw myself upon him and kissing his feet, said, ‘O my lord, I crave thy company.’ But he said, ‘This may nowise be.’ Night cccclxxxii.Whereupon I fell a-weeping and lamenting, and he said, ‘Peace: weeping will avail thee nothing.’ And he recited the following verses:
For my estrangement dost thou weep,—whenas it came from thee,—And restoration dost implore, when none, alas! may be?
Thou sawst my weakness and disease, as it appeared, and saidst, “He goes nor comes, or night or day, for this his malady.”
Seest not that God (exalted be His glory) to His slave Vouchsafeth all he can conceive of favours fair and free!
If I, to outward vision, be as it appears and eke In body, for despite of Fate, e’en that which thou dost see,
And eke no victual though I have, unto the holy place Where crowds unto my Lord resort, indeed, to carry me,
I have a Maker, hidden are His bounties unto me; Yea, there’s no parting me from Him, and without peer is He.
Depart from me in peace and leave me and my strangerhood; For with the lonely exile still the One shall company.
So I left him and continued my journey; and every stage I came to, I found him before me, till I came to Medina, where I lost sight of him and could hear no news of him. Here I met Abou Yezid el Bustani and Abou Bekr es Shibli and a number of other doctors, to whom I told my case and they said, ‘God forbid that thou shouldst gain his company after this! This was Abou Jaafer the leper, in whose name, at all tides, the folk pray for rain and by whose blessing prayers are answered.’ When I heard this, my longing for his company redoubled and I implored God to reunite me with him. Whilst I was standing on Arafat, one plucked me from behind, so I turned and behold it was Abou Jaafer. At this sight, I gave a loud cry and fell down in a swoon; but, when I came to myself, he was gone.
This increased my yearning for him and the ways were straitened upon me and I prayed God to give me sight of
