Another bird said to the hoopoe: “I am effeminate in character, and know only how to leap from one branch to another. At one moment I am libertine, at another abstinent; at times I am drunk; now I exist and do not exist, now I do not exist and do exist; now my concupiscent soul urges me to go to taverns, now my spirit bids me give myself to prayer. Sometimes the devil turns me, against my will, from the spiritual path; at other times the angels bring me back to it. Thus, bewildered as I am between these two attractions, what can I do in the pit and the prison where I groan like Joseph?”
The hoopoe replied: “This happens to everyone; for few people possess identical qualities. If all were originally pure, would God have needed to send His prophets? By devoting yourself to obedience, you will easily attain happiness. Until your life rises like a mountain, it will bring neither rest nor happiness to your body. O thou who dwellest in the baths of indolence, and yet art full of desires! thy tears of blood lay bare the secrets of thy heart, while its rust proclaims the satiety of well-being. When thou dost ever feed thy soul’s bitch, thy nature is worse than that of the impotent hermaphrodite.”
The hoopoe replied: “This happens to everyone; for few people possess identical qualities. If all were originally pure, would God have needed to send His prophets? By devoting yourself to obedience, you will easily attain happiness. Until your life rises like a mountain, it will bring neither rest nor happiness to your body. O thou who dwellest in the baths of indolence, and yet art full of desires! thy tears of blood lay bare the secrets of thy heart, while its rust proclaims the satiety of well-being. When thou dost ever feed thy soul’s bitch, thy nature is worse than that of the impotent hermaphrodite.”