A madman in love with God, his mind raised toward spiritual things, went naked, while other men were covered by their garments. He said: “O my God! give me a fine garment, and thereby make me content like other men.” A voice from the unseen world made itself heard by him, and said: “Go, then; I have given you a warm sun. Sit down and enjoy it.” The madman said: “O my God! why dost Thou punish me? Hadst Thou no better garment to give me than the sun?” The voice said to him: “Go, wait ten more days, and I shall give you another garment without further difficulty.”
When this man had been scorched by the sun for eight days, he obtained a garment; but it was in a hundred thousand pieces, because the person who had given it to him was poor. The madman said to God: “O Thou who knowest secrets! how is it that Thou hast given me this patched garment today? Are Thy garments burned up in Thy treasury, that this old garment had to be patched? Thou hast sewn a hundred thousand garments together. From whom didst Thou learn this art?”
When this man had been scorched by the sun for eight days, he obtained a garment; but it was in a hundred thousand pieces, because the person who had given it to him was poor. The madman said to God: “O Thou who knowest secrets! how is it that Thou hast given me this patched garment today? Are Thy garments burned up in Thy treasury, that this old garment had to be patched? Thou hast sewn a hundred thousand garments together. From whom didst Thou learn this art?”
It is not easy to have to do with the court of God; to do so, one must become the dust of the road that leads thither. Those who have come from afar to this court have been burned by the fire even as they have been illumined by the light. When, after a whole lifetime, one believes oneself to have reached the goal, one feels regret at not having attained it.