Thou didst with fire make red the rose’s heart, And kindle passion in the nightingale; Thou didst lend sweetness to the open air, And scatter in the East the scent of musk; To thee the spring-time owes her living crown; The groves of roses owe their fame to thee. ’Tis thou didst paint the rose’s gallery; And China’s flowery land had birth from thee. The festival of roses is from thee; The rose guests owe their genial hours to thee; Thine is the burning aloe of the East; Thine, the loud warbling of the nightingale; From thee, the rose her glowing color takes; From thee, the nightingale her melody; The tulip’s bosom glows with love for thee; Delight in thee perfumes the cypress boughs; Great nature’s heart is opened at thy smile; And by thy grace the vernal waters flow. Thy wrath bows down the violet to the dust. ’Tis at thine indignation that it wilts. Thou lightest tapers in the forest glade, And sometimes in thy flames the tulip dies; And the narcissus, like a beggar crouched, Thou dost ennoble with thy crowns of gold; Yet, ’tis their voices and their tongues that praise With melody, thy name in woodland glades. Yea, from the very seeds thy praises rise; And the spring’s tender nurslings speak thy name. The living and the dead recount thy praise, The fount, from which the light of living streams; No man can worthily extol thy name. Sing then thyself, the glory that is thine; Who art the only power that at a word Didst call into existence heaven and earth. The breezes of the west did softly blow Where solid land and ocean were to be. And, as thy simple fiat sounded forth, The earth was fashioned and the world was framed. ’Tis thou that gavest her station to the earth, Thou madest hidden treasures in the hills. Thou sendest down thy rain-drops on the dust; Refreshing all the leafage of the plants. Thou didst unite the earthly elements And raise the arches of the firmament. And yoke the four refractory winds of heaven; The great world-dragon is thy talisman. The stream of life to all things didst thou yield; To snake and ant alike thou givest meat; And the earth’s treasures by thy grace are known, And by thy grace are all things possible. Upon the page of night, with master hand, The shining precepts of thy law are writ. And gloriously emblazoned by the signs And letters of the azure firmament. For wisdom of Bismillah is the B, As Allah is great nature’s origin. Next comes the spirit of the universe; Our Scripture is the mother of all books, And on its page is written plain to see, “He in the heavens has made himself a throne.” And under it the scribe Almighty wrote The verses that depict the holiest throne. Next the seven heavens in order he described; In the first chapter of Alcoran’s scroll.