As he woke from his dream, Shems was entering the room with a severe look. Addressing Jelāl, he asked: “How hast thou dared to study that book again?” Jelāl protested that, since his prohibition, he had never once opened his father’s works.
“Yes,” retorted Shems, “there is a study by reading, and there is also a study by contemplating. Dreams are but the shadows of our waking thoughts. Hadst thou not occupied thy thoughts with those writings, thou wouldst not have dreamt about them.”
“From that time forward,” remarked Jelāl, “I never again busied myself with my father’s writings, so long as Shemsu-’d-Dīn remained alive.”
6.
Jelāl is related to have informed his disciples that Shemsu-’d-Dīn was a scholar in every science known to man, and also a great alchemist; but that he had renounced them all, to devote himself to the study and contemplation of the mysteries of divine love.
7.
Shemsu-’d-Dīn was one day sitting with his disciples, when the public executioner passed by. Shems remarked to those around him: “There goes one of God’s saints.”
The disciples knew the man, and told Shems that he was the common headsman. Shems replied: “True! In the exercise of his calling, he put to death a man of God, whose soul he thus released from the bondage of the body. As a recompense for this kind act of his, the saint bequeathed to him his own saintship.”
On the following day the executioner relinquished his office, vowed repentance, came to Shemsu-’d-Dīn, made his bow, and professed himself a disciple.