Nor seas, nor skies, such gem enclose within their whirl!
How long of form thy talk—form-worshipper—vain man?
Cannot thy senseless soul cast off form’s deadening ban?
Did human form alone suffice a man to make,
Ahmed and Abū-Jahl were one in grade, in stake.125
A painting on a wall may show the human form.
But look and see what lacks, the figure to inform.
’Tis life it wants, and soul;—the pretty-looking thing!
Ask for its life. No! No! Though portrait of a king.
The heads of all earth’s lions bowed down meek and low,