The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, by Ibn al-Arabi, tr. Reynold A. Nicholson, [1911], at sacred-texts.com
VI
1. When they departed, endurance and patience departed. They departed, although they were dwelling in the core of my heart.
2. I asked them where the travellers rested at noon, and I was answered, 'Their noonday resting-place is where the shíḥ and the bán trees diffuse a sweet scent.'
3. Then I said to the wind, 'Go and overtake them, for they are biding in the shade of the grove,
4. And bear to them a greeting from a sorrowful man in whose heart are sorrows because he is separated from his people.'
COMMENTARY
1. 'They departed,' i.e. the Divine Ideas (###).
'They were dwelling in the core of my heart': the Divine Ideas have no relationship except with their object (###), which is God; and God dwells in the heart, according to the Tradition 'Neither My earth nor My heaven contains Me, but I am contained in the heart of My servant who believes'. Since, however, no manifestation was vouchsafed to him at this moment, the Ideas, being objects of vision, disappeared, notwithstanding that God was in his heart.
2. 'I asked them,' i.e. the gnostics and the real existences (###) of the past Shaykhs who were my guides on the mystic Way.
'Their noonday resting-place,' etc., i.e. they reposed in every heart where the sighs (###) of longing appeared, for shíḥ denotes inclination (mayl) and bán absence (bu‘d).
3. 'I said to the wind,' i.e. I sent a sigh of longing after them in the hope of causing them to return to me.
'In the shade of the grove,' i.e. amongst the arák trees, whereof the wood is used as a tooth-stick (###). He refers to the Tradition 'The use of the tooth-stick purifies the mouth and pleases the Lord', i.e. the Divine Ideas are dwelling in the abode of purity.
