Then came the peacock, in a robe of gold, with feathers of a hundred—nay, of a hundred thousand colours. He appeared in all his finery, like a newly wedded bride; each of his feathers displayed its splendour. “The painter of the invisible world,” said he, “placed His brush in the hands of the jinn, that they might fashion me. Though I am the Gabriel of the birds, my lot is far less fortunate; for, having struck up a friendship with the serpent in the earthly paradise, I was ignominiously driven out. I was deprived of the post of trust that had been entrusted to me, and my feet became my prison; yet I have always hoped that a generous guide will draw me from this dark abode and lead me to the dwelling of eternity. I do not aspire to reach the king of whom thou speakest; it is enough for me to reach his gatekeeper. Could the Simurgh be the object of my ambition, when I limit it to dwelling in the earthly paradise? I have nothing to do in the world until I go to rest once more in Paradise.”
The hoopoe replied to him: “O thou who dost wilfully stray from the true path! Know that he who desires the palace of this king, far preferable to the palace of which thou speakest, has nothing better to do than draw near to it. It is the dwelling of the soul, it is eternity, the object of our desires, the abode of the heart, in a word, the seat of truth. The Most High is this vast ocean. The paradise of earthly delights is but a little drop of it. He who possesses the ocean possesses the drop; all that is not this ocean is folly. When thou canst have the ocean, why wouldst thou go in search of a drop of nocturnal dew? Can he who partakes of the secrets of the sun stop at an atom of dust? Has he who is the whole aught to do with the part? Does the soul need the members of the body? If thou art a perfect man, consider the whole, seek the whole, be the whole, choose the whole.”