[236] This section purports to be a dissertation on the dictum: “What God wills, is.”
[237] Man’s “record” is the register of his thoughts, words, and deeds, kept by angels, to be produced in the last judgment.
[238] The same word in Persian, bū, signifies “odour” and “hope.” The thing hoped for becomes a distant, odoriferous flower.
[239] Qur’ān ii. 23, and forty places in all.
[240] Jacob is said to have wept himself blind on losing Joseph; the smell of his son’s coat, when refound, later, restored him.
[241] Ferhād was Shīrīn’s lover. (See Tale 6, distich 107, note.)
[242] Majnūn, in story, went mad for love of Laylà.
[243] The “Sage of Gazna” is the poet Sanā’ī, already mentioned in the notes to the present tale, distich 230.
[244] Joseph is held to have been most superlatively beautiful.
[245] Isrāfīl is the angel who will blow the last trump, twice. At the first, all living will die; at the second, all the dead will rise to be judged. His voice is the most musical among all those of the angels.