The merchant was petrified at this announcement. Jelāl then asked him: “Wilt thou that we this instant show him to thee?” So saying, he placed his hand on the wall of the apartment, and told the merchant to behold. Instantly, a doorway opened in the wall, and the merchant thence perceived that man in Firengistān, lying down in a market-place. At this sight he bowed down his head and rent his garments, coming away from the saintly presence in a state of stupor. He remembered all these incidents as facts.
Immediately commencing his preparations, he set out without delay, and reached the city in question. He inquired for the ward he wished to visit, and for the man whom he had offended. Him he discovered lying down, stretched out as Jelāl had shown him. The merchant dismounted from his beast, and made his obeisance to the prostrate Firengī dervish, who at once addressed him thus: “What wilt thou that I do? Our Lord Jelāl suffereth me not; or otherwise, I had a desire to make thee see the power of God, and what I am. But now, draw near.”
The Firengī dervish then clasped the merchant to his bosom, kissed him repeatedly on both cheeks, and then added: “Look now, that thou mayest see my Lord and Teacher, my spiritual Master, and that thou mayest witness a marvel.” The merchant looked. He saw the Lord Jelāl immersed in a holy dance, chanting this hymn, and entranced with sacred music:—
“His kingdom’s vast and pure; each sort its fitting place finds there;
Cornelian, ruby, clod, or pebble be thou on His hill.
Believe, He seeks thee; disbelieve, He’ll haply cleanse thee fair;
Be here a faithful Abū-Bekr; Firengī there; at will.”
When the merchant happily reached Qonya on his return, he gave the salutations of the Firengī saint, and his respects, to Jelāl; and distributed much substance among the disciples. He settled at Qonya, and became a member of the fraternity of the Pure Lovers of God.
18.
Jelāl was one day passing by a street, where two men were quarrelling. He stood on one side. One of the men called out to the other: “Say what thou will; thou shalt hear from me a thousandfold for every word thou mayest utter.”