276 ‘Where then have faith and devotion their beginning?’ He answered: ‘In my Beloved, who illumines faith and nurtures devotion.’
277 They asked the Lover: ‘Which is greater—the possible or the impossible?’ He answered: ‘The possible is greater in man, and the impossible in my Beloved, since power and possibility are in agreement, and impossibility and actuality.’
278 ‘Say, O Fool, which is the greater—difference or harmony?’ He answered: ‘Save in my Beloved, difference is greater in plurality, and harmony in unity; but in my Beloved they are equal in plurality and in unity.’
279 ‘Say, O Lover, what is true worth?’ He answered: ‘It is the opposite of this world’s worth, which false and vainglorious lovers desire; for they go after worth and achieve only worthlessness.’
280 ‘Say, O Fool, hast thou seen one without his reason?’ He answered: ‘I have seen a lord of the Church, who had many cups on his table, and many plates and knives of silver, and in his chamber had many garments and a great bed, and in his coffers great wealth—and at the gates of his palace but few poor.’
281 ‘Knowest thou, O Fool, what is evil?’ He answered: ‘Evil thoughts.’ ‘And what is loyalty?’ ‘It is fear of my Beloved, born of charity and of shame which men reproach.’ ‘And what is honour?’ He answered: ‘It is to think on my Beloved, to desire Him and to praise His glorious Name.’
282 The Lover went one day into a cloister, and the monks inquired of him if he, too, were a religious. ‘Yea,’ he answered, ‘of the order of my Beloved.’ ‘What rule dost thou follow?’ He answered: ‘My Beloved’s.’ ‘To whom art thou vowed?’ He said: ‘To my Beloved.’ ‘Hast thou thy will?’ He answered: ‘Nay, it is given to my Beloved.’ ‘Hast thou added aught to the rule of thy Beloved?’ He answered: ‘Naught can be added to that which is already perfect. And why,’ continued the Lover, ‘do not you that are religious take the Name of my Beloved? May it not be that, as you bear the name of another, your love may grow less, and, hearing the voice of another, you may not catch the voice of the Beloved?’
283 The trials and tribulations that the Lover endured for love’s sake made him weary and apt to be impatient; and the Beloved reproved him, saying that he whom either trouble or happiness affected thus knew but little of love. So the Lover was contrite and wept, and he begged his Beloved to restore his love again.
284 ‘Say, O Fool, what is love?’ He answered: ‘Love is that which throws the free into bondage, and to those that are in bonds gives liberty.’ And who can say whether in love there is more of liberty or of bondage?
285 The Beloved called His Lover, and he answered Him, saying: ‘What wilt Thou, O my Beloved, Thou who art the sight of my eyes, thought of my thoughts, love of my love and sum of my perfections,—yea, and the source of all my beginnings?’