2-3793 You would have said he was standing enraptured amongst herbs and flowers,

or mounted on Burāq or Duldul945;

2-3794 Or that his feet were on silk and broidered cloths; or that to him the samūm was
more pleasant than the zephyr (gentle breeze).

2-3795 The pilgrims stood waiting, while he remained standing in prayer, sunk in long
meditation.

2-3796 When the dervish came back to himself from this state of absorption in God,
one of that company, a man spiritually alive and of enlightened mind,

2-3797 Saw that water was trickling from his hands and face, and that his clothes were
wet from the traces of ablution;

2-3798 So he asked him, “Where do you get water?” He lifted his hand, indicating that
it came from heaven.

2-3799 The pilgrim said, “Does it come whenever you want, without any well and
without any rope of palm-fibre946?

2-3800 Solve our problem, o Sulṭān of the Religion, in order that your spiritual
experience may give us certain faith.

2-3801 Reveal to us one of your mysteries, that we may cut the cords of infidelity947
from our waists.”

2-3802 The ascetic turned his eyes to heaven, saying, “O God, answer the prayer of the
pilgrims!

2-3803 I am accustomed to seek daily bread from above: You have opened to me the
door form above,

2-3804 O You who from non-spatiality948 have made space visible, and have made
manifest the fact that in heaven is your sustenance949.”

2-3805 In the midst of this prayer a beautiful cloud suddenly appeared, like a water-
bearing elephant,

2-3806 And began to pour down rain, like water from a water-skin: the rain-water
settled in the ditch and in the caves.

945
Burāq: the animal ridden by the Prophet when he ascended to Heaven. Duldul: a mule belonging to the
Prophet (Nich.).
946
Qur’ān 111:5.
947
“cords of infidelity”: in the Persian text it says zunnār, which another name for the kushtī, the ritual cord worn
by Zoroastrians. Zunnār also refers to the cords worn around the waist by Christian monks. In Ḥażrat Mawlānā
Rūmī’s time these cords were considered as the sign of infidelity. In Ṣūfī symbolism, however, the word zunnār
symbolizes the readiness to serve others.
948
Non-spatiality: lā makān, literally “no space”, i.e. “the Placeless Realm”, the place of the deity, where there is
no space and time, a state beyond our conception.
949
Qur’ān 51:22.

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