Dr. Tholuck quotes this verse from a Darwesh Breviary:—
“Yesterday I beat the kettle-drum of dominion,
I pitched my tent on the highest throne;
I drank, crowned by the Beloved,
The wine of unity from the cup of the Almighty.”
One of the most characteristic Ṣūfī poems is the Persian poem by the poet Jāmī, entitled Salāmān and Absāl. The whole narrative is supposed to represent the joys of Love Divine as compared with the delusive fascinations of a Life of Sense. The story is that of a certain King of Ionia, who had a son named Salāmān, who in his infancy was nursed by a young maiden named Absāl, who, as he grew up, fell desperately in love with the youth, and in time ensnared him. Salāmān and Absāl rejoiced together in a life of sense for a full year, and thought their pleasures would never end. A certain sage is then sent by the king to reason with the erring couple. Salāmān confesses that the sage is right, but pleads the weakness of his own will. Salāmān leaves his native land in company with Absāl, and they find themselves on an island of wonderful beauty. Salāmān, unsatisfied with himself and his love, returns once more to his native country, where he and Absāl resolve to destroy themselves. They go to a desert and kindle a pile, and both walk into the fire. Absāl is consumed, but Salāmān is preserved in the fire, and lives to lament the fate of his beloved one. In course of time he is introduced by the sage to a celestial beauty called Zuhrah, with whom he becomes completely enamoured, and Absāl is forgotten.
“… Celestial beauty seen,
He left the earthly; and once come to know
Eternal love, he let the mortal go.”
In the epilogue to the poem, the author explains the mystic meaning of the whole story in the following language:—