of a winecup tempered at the camphor fountain.”(64) If the interpretation
of “camphor” become known, the true intention will be evident. This state
is that poverty of which it is said, “Poverty is My glory.”(65) And of
inward and outward poverty there is many a stage and many a meaning which
I have not thought pertinent to mention here; hence I have reserved these
for another time, dependent on what God may desire and fate may seal.

This is the plane whereon the vestiges of all things (Kullu Shay’) are
destroyed in the traveler, and on the horizon of eternity the Divine Face
riseth out of the darkness, and the meaning of “All on the earth shall
pass away, but the face of thy Lord....”(66) is made manifest.

O My friend, listen with heart and soul to the songs of the spirit, and
treasure them as thine own eyes. For the heavenly wisdoms, like the clouds
of spring, will not rain down on the earth of men’s hearts forever; and
though the grace of the All-Bounteous One is never stilled and never
ceasing, yet to each time and era a portion is allotted and a bounty set
apart, this in a given measure. “And no one thing is there, but with Us
are its storehouses; and We send it not down but in settled measure.”(67)
The cloud of the Loved One’s mercy raineth only on the garden of the
spirit, and bestoweth this bounty only in the season of spring. The other
seasons have no share in this greatest grace, and barren lands no portion
of this favor.

O Brother! Not every sea hath pearls; not every branch will flower, nor
will the nightingale sing thereon. Then, ere the nightingale of the mystic
paradise repair to the garden of God, and the rays of the heavenly morning
return to the Sun of Truth—make thou an effort, that haply in this
dustheap of the mortal world thou mayest catch a fragrance from the
everlasting garden, and live forever in the shadow of the peoples of this