Another bird said to the hoopoe: “The devil stirs up my pride to prevent me from taking a guide at the moment when I would wish to enter this path. Since I cannot overcome him by force, my heart is troubled by his deceit. How shall I escape from Eblis and be quickened by the wine of spiritual meaning?”
The hoopoe replied: “So long as this concupiscent soul stands before thee, will the devil flee far from thee? He employs his wiles to deceive thee. Each of thy desires becomes a demon unto thee; nay, if thou yieldest to but one of thy desires, a hundred devils will arise within thee.”
The world, which may be likened to the bath-house and to a prison, is in truth the devil’s domain. Withdraw thy hand from it, then, that thou mayest have nothing to do with its master.
The hoopoe replied: “So long as this concupiscent soul stands before thee, will the devil flee far from thee? He employs his wiles to deceive thee. Each of thy desires becomes a demon unto thee; nay, if thou yieldest to but one of thy desires, a hundred devils will arise within thee.”
The world, which may be likened to the bath-house and to a prison, is in truth the devil’s domain. Withdraw thy hand from it, then, that thou mayest have nothing to do with its master.