'Twas there I read the Stagyrite, a dunce,

The Frankish ruler of theology,

And father of a dunce, Alfarabi.

"I laid him low and hurried home to indite

A book, the fruit of all my Thought and Travel,

Entitled 'Contemplation of the Navel,'

A mystic book. (But first I learned to write.)

Such of our doctors as can read have read it.

But I was bent on even higher credit.

"I sought a cave whence madmen hunt wild sheep,