He therefore sought and found an opportunity to propose that Jelāl should indite something in the style of the Ilāhī-nāma, but in the metre of the Mantiqu-’t-Tayr; saying that the circle of friends would then willingly give up all other poetry, and study that alone.
Jelāl immediately produced a portion of the Mesnevī, saying that God had forewarned him of the wishes of the brethren, in consequence of which he had already begun to compose the work. That fragment consisted of the first eighteen couplets of the introductory verses:—
“From reed-flute hear what tale it tells,
What plaint it makes of absence’ ills,” &c.
It is of the metre Remel, hexameter contracted:
- ‿ - - │ - ‿ - - │ - ‿ - ║ - ‿ - - │ - ‿ - - │ - ‿ - ║
Jelāl frequently mentions Husām as the cause of the work’s having been begun and continued. In the fourth book he addresses him in the opening couplet:—
“Of Truth, the light; of Faith, the sword; Husāmu-’d-Dīn aye be;
Above the lunar orb has clomb my Mesnevī, through thee.”
And again the sixth book has for its opening verse the following apostrophe:—