Another bird said to the hoopoe: “O thou who art clear-sighted! what thou proposest is worthy of inspiring ambition. Though I seem weak, I am in truth possessed of noble ardour; though I have but little strength, I nevertheless have high ambition.”
The hoopoe replied: “The magnet that draws those devoted to the profession of faith that begins with the word alast is lofty ambition, which reveals all that exists. He who is animated by this sublime ambition at once knows all that exists. When one possesses even the least measure of this noble ambition, it brings even the sun into subjection. The chief point in the kingdom of the world is ambition. Ambition is the wing and the plumage of the bird of souls.”
The old woman who wishes to buy Joseph.
The hoopoe replied: “The magnet that draws those devoted to the profession of faith that begins with the word alast is lofty ambition, which reveals all that exists. He who is animated by this sublime ambition at once knows all that exists. When one possesses even the least measure of this noble ambition, it brings even the sun into subjection. The chief point in the kingdom of the world is ambition. Ambition is the wing and the plumage of the bird of souls.”
The old woman who wishes to buy Joseph.
It is said that, when Joseph was sold, the Egyptians showed him ardent sympathy. As there were many buyers, they demanded five or ten times his weight in gold. Among them was an old woman, with a bleeding heart, who had spun a few balls of thread for the occasion. Deeply moved, she came into the midst of the assembly and said to the broker: “Sell me this Canaanite; I am mad with longing to possess this young man. I have spun ten balls of thread to pay his price; take them, and sell me Joseph, placing your hand in mine without a word.” The broker then began to smile, and said to the old woman: “Your simplicity leads you astray; this unique pearl is not for you. In this assembly, a hundred treasures are being offered to pay his price; how, then, would you hope to pay for him with your balls of thread?” — “I know very well,” replied the old woman, “that no one would sell this young man for so little; but it is enough for me that my friends and enemies can say: ‘This old woman was among the buyers of this young man.’”
No heart that is not animated by a noble ambition can attain the infinite kingdom. It was through such ambition that the great prince of whom I am about to speak set fire to his kingdom. When he perceived all the drawbacks of temporal royalty, he deemed spiritual royalty a hundred times more precious than a hundred thousand earthly kingdoms. His ambition having grown in all purity of intention, he became weary of every impure kingdom. Indeed, when the eye of ambition beholds the sun, how could it become attached to an atom?