Prostrate in prayer for light, light on a page

Of subtle-minded Greek which many a day

Had baffled him, when he sought therein the mind

Of his forerunner.

I saw him as he rose;

And, as by chance, at the outer gates he met

A wandering vendor of old tattered books

Who, for three dirhems, offered him a prize.

He bought it, out of gentle heart, and found

A wonder on every page,—Farabi’s work,