Islam

Shabistari, Secret Rose Garden, The Book of God

The universe is God's book,
And He to whom the vision of the Divine
Has been vouchsafed
Reads therein and understands.
Substance is its consonants and accidents its
vowels,
And different creatures are its signs and pauses.
The first verse is "Universal Reason,"
The second "Universal Soul," the "verse of
light,"
And this is as a brightly shining lamp.
The third is the "Highest heavens,
The fourth "The Throne."
After there are seven transcendent spheres,
The "chapter of the seven limbs,"
And forms of the four elements,
Then Nature's three kingdoms
Whose verses none can count.
And last of all came down the soul of man.

Source Shabistari, Gulshan-i Raz (Le Jardin secret des roses), trad. Florence Lederer (1920), archive.org secretrosegarden00shabiala (OCR corrigé) · Contents