Soul of the soul! Neither thought nor reason comprehend thy essence, and no one knows thy attributes. Souls have no idea of thy being. The prophets themselves sink into the dust before thee. Although intellect exists by thee, has it ever found the path of thy existence? _Thou art the interior and the exterior of the soul._—(_Attar._) They who see God are ever rapt in ecstacy. * * * (_The Mesnevi._) ECSTASY: NATURE AS MEDIUM. The varied pictures I have drawn on space, Behold what fair and goodly sights they seem; One glimpse I gave them of my glorious face, And lo! ‘tis now the universal theme. (_E. H. Palmer, Orient. Myst._). Recognise the mark of Deity in every place, and never place the foot without its own limit. The world is the image of the Godhead.—(_Buslami._) * * * * * RABIA LEGENDS. —The widow _Rabia_[56] is reported having said “an interior wound consumes my heart; it can only be cured by communion with a friend.[57] I shall remain sick till the day of judgment when I shall reach my end.”— —It is told of _Rabia_, that once when requested to marry, she answered: My being has for a long time been in marital communion; hence I say that my ego is long ago lost in itself and arisen again in Him (in God); since then I am entirely in His power, yea, I am He. He, who would ask me for a bride, would ask me, not from myself, but from Him (God). _Hassan Basri_ (a famous Mohamedan Theologian) asked her how she had reached this state. She answered: In this way, everything which I had found I lost again in Him (God). When questioned as to by which mode she knew Him, she made answer: O, _Hassan, you_ know Him by certain methods and means, I know Him without modes and means.— —_Ibn Chali Kan_ tells about Rabia that she often in the middle of the night went up upon the roof and in her loneness cried out: O, my God! Now is silenced the noise of the day, and the lover enjoys the night with the beloved, but I enjoy myself in my loneness with Thee; Thou art my true lover.— —It is told of her that once while journeying to Mecca on seeing the Kaaba she exclaimed: What is the Kaaba to me? I need the Lord of the Kaaba! I am so near God that I apply to myself his words: He who approaches me by an inch, him I approach by a yard. What is the Kaaba to me?— —_Feri’d Eddin Attar_ tells about her, that she, once while crossing the fields, cried out: Deep longing after God has taken possession of me! True, Thou art both earth and stone, but I yearn to behold Thee, Thyself. The high God spoke to her in her heart, without a medium: O, Rabia! Do you not know that once when Moses requested to see God, only a grain fell from the sun and he collapsed: Be satisfied with my name!— —Once asked if she beheld God while worshipping Him, “Assuredly,” said she, “I behold Him, for Whom I cannot see, I cannot worship.”—