Blessed are the eyes that can perceive such sights!
The friend was near fainting at this answer. But he heard Jelāl call out: “Come in, come in, thou messenger of my King. Do that which thou art bidden; and, God willing, thou shalt find me one of the patient.”
He now told his attendants to bring a vessel of water, placed his two feet therein, and occasionally sprinkled a little on his breast and forehead, saying: “My beloved (God) has proffered me a cup of poison (bitterness). From his hand I drink that poison with delight.”
The singers and musicians now came in, and executed a hymn, while the whole company of friends wept, and sobbed loudly.
Jelāl observed: “It is as my friends say. But, were they even to pull down the house, what use? See my panting heart; look at my delight. The sun sheds a grateful light on the moth. My friends invite me one way; my teacher Shemsu-’d-Dīn beckons me the other way. Comply ye with the summoner of the Lord, and have faith in Him. Departure is inevitable. All being came out of nothing, and again it will be shut up in the prison of nullity. Such is God’s decree from all eternity; and, to decree belongeth unto God, the Most High, the All-Great!”
His son Sultan Veled had been unremitting in his attentions. He wept and sobbed. He was reduced to a shadow. Jelāl therefore said to him: “Bahā’u-’d-Dīn, my son, I am better. Go and lie down a little. Rest thyself, and sleep awhile!”
When he was gone, Jelāl indited his last ode; thus:—
“Go! head on pillow lay; alone, in peace, me leave,
Loved tyrant, plague by night, while all around thee grieve.
That peerless beauty (God) has no need kind care to show;