Lesson 8: The king sends envoys to Samarkand to fetch the goldsmith

The king sent one or two messengers that way, skilled, competent and very just.

Those two amirs came as far as Samarkand, bringing good news to that goldsmith from the king of kings.

˹They said,˺ “O master of fine craft, perfect in knowledge ˹of your work˺, your merit is openly spoken of in the cities.”

“Now such-and-such a king has chosen you for goldsmith’s work, because you excel ˹in this craft˺.”

“Here, take this robe of honour, and gold and silver; when you come, you will be a favourite and boon companion ˹of the king˺.”

The man saw much wealth and many robes of honour; he was beguiled and parted from his town and children.

The man set out on the road joyfully, unaware that the king had designs on his life.

He mounted an Arabian horse and rode off gladly; he took the price of his own blood for a robe of honour.

O you who, with full consent, have set out of your own accord, on your own feet, on a journey towards an evil decree!

In his fancy were kingship, honour and greatness; Azrael said ˹mockingly˺, “Go; yes, you will win ˹your wish˺!”

When that stranger arrived from the road, the ˹divine˺ physician took him in before the king.

They brought him with honour to the king of kings, so that ˹like a moth˺ he might burn over the candle of Taraz ˹, that is, the beautiful handmaiden˺.

The king saw him, honoured him greatly and entrusted the treasury of gold to him.

Then the ˹divine˺ physician said to him, “O great sultan, give that handmaiden to this man.”

“So that the handmaiden may get well in union with him, and the water of union with him may quench that fire ˹of illness˺.”

The king granted that moon-faced beauty to him and joined together the two who sought companionship.

For six months they were enjoying their desire, until the girl was fully restored to health.

After that he ˹the divine physician˺ made a potion for him ˹the goldsmith˺; as soon as he drank, he was melting away before the girl.

When through illness his beauty did not remain, the girl’s soul did not remain captive to him.

As soon as he became ugly, sickly and pale-faced, little by little he grew cold in her heart.

Loves that are for the sake of a colour are not love; in the end they are a disgrace.

If only that ˹love of colour˺ too had been wholly a disgrace, so that that evil judgement would not have been passed on him ˹the goldsmith˺.

Blood ran like a stream from his eye; his ˹handsome˺ face became the enemy of his life.

˹For instance,˺ the peacock’s enemy is its plumage; how many a king has been killed by his splendour!

He ˹the goldsmith˺ said, “I am that musk deer for whose navel this hunter shed my pure blood.”

“Ah, I am that fox of the desert whose head they cut off from ambush for the sake of a fur coat.”

“Ah, I am that elephant whose blood was shed by the mahout’s blow for the sake of the bone ˹, that is, ivory˺.”

“He who has killed me for something lower than I does not know that my blood does not sleep.”

“Today it ˹the harm˺ is upon me, and tomorrow upon him; when does the blood of one like me go to waste like this?”

“˹For instance,˺ although the wall casts a long shadow, that shadow turns back again towards it ˹the wall˺.”

“This world is like a mountain, and our deeds like a call; the echo of the calls comes back to us.”

He ˹the goldsmith˺ said this and in that instant went beneath the earth; the handmaiden was purified of love and suffering.

For the love of the dead does not endure, for one who is dead does not come back to us.

The love of the living in the soul and in the sight is at every moment fresher than a bud.

Choose the love of that Living One who is everlasting and who is your cupbearer of the wine that increases the soul.

Choose the love of Him ˹, the Beloved,˺ through whose love all the prophets found power and sovereignty.

Do not say, “We have no leave to come before that King”; with the generous, things are not hard.