“One ought to put on ironed shoes, and take in hand an ironed staff, to set out at once and visit this great light. I make it a legacy to all my friends to do so without the least delay, if they have the means and the strength, so as to achieve the happiness and secure the honour of making the acquaintance of this prince, so obtaining the grace and favour of hearing him. His father, Bahā Veled, and his ancestors, were great Sheykhs and most illustrious; their great progenitor having been the first Caliph, Abū-Bekr, the glorious Confirmer of the truth spoken by the Apostle of God. I am myself old and infirm, unequal to the fatigues of travel. Otherwise, I would have walked, not on the soles of my feet, but on the tips of my great toes, to visit that eminent man.”
The Sheykh’s eldest son, Muzahhiru-’d-Dīn, was there present. To him the Sheykh addressed himself, saying: “My son, I do hope that thy eyes will behold this sacred visage; and, if God so will, convey to him my salutation and my respects.”
After the death of the old man, his son went to Rome, had the felicity to see Jelāl, and presented his father’s message. He returned to Bakharz; but it is said that a son of his lies buried at Qonya.
15.
Kirā Khātūn, the widow of Jelāl, is reported to have related to a friend that there was in their household a candlestick of the height of a man, before which Jelāl used to stand on foot the night through, until daydawn, studying the writings of his father.
One night, a company of the genii, dwellers in the college where Jelāl and his wife lived, appeared to her in a body, to complain of the great inconvenience and suffering to which they were subjected by this practice of Jelāl’s, and saying: “We can put up with it no longer. Take care, lest we do a mischief to some one in the college.”
The lady reported this complaint of the genii to her husband. He merely smiled, and took no further notice of the matter for several days.
At the end of that time, however, he spoke of it, and told his wife to trouble herself no more about the threat of the genii, as he had converted them all. They had become disciples of his, and would certainly do no harm to any friend or dependent of their teacher.
16.
It was related by one of the chief of Jelāl’s disciples, a butcher by trade, a trainer of dogs for the chase, and a purveyor of horses of the best kind, which he used to sell to princes and grandees at high prices, that, at a certain time, Jelāl was much exercised by visions from the spiritual world, so that for forty days he was as though beside himself, passing through the streets with his head bare, and his turban twisted round his neck.