And He it is Who sent down, from the heaven of the spirit, the water of knowledge, and therewith We bring forth plants, of every kind of character trait and quality of excellence; and We bring forth, from the plants the configuration of a verdant soul, fairly and beautifully adorned, as well as gladdened by knowledge and [virtuous] character traits, bringing forth, from that configuration and [that] tender and pliant soul, corresponding noble deeds that are pleasing and sincere intentions by which the heart is fortified; and from the palm-tree of the intellect by the manifestation of its attachment, [We bring forth] gnoses and realities that are close for the picking because of their being manifested by the light of the spirit, being as though self-evident, and gardens of grapes: states, tastes and especially the [various] types of the love of the heart (maḥabba qalbiyya), whose pressed nectar and unpressed dregs are both intoxicating, and the olives of reflection and the pomegranates of truthful estimations which are the noble aspirations and the resolves of the soul, similar, are some of them to others, like as attachments, reflections, gnoses, realities, deeds, intentions and like the love of the [one's own] essence and the love of the attributes, but not alike, as in the case of the [various] types of love and deeds, for example, or [it means] that they are similar in level, potency, weakness, its clarity and its obscurity and dissimilar in these. Look upon their fruits when they have borne fruit, and be mindful of them through self-examination during the wayfaring and the incipience of a state, and let your look fall away from pleasures to these fruits, and their ripening, their perfection upon the arrival at the presence. Surely, in all that are signs for a people who believe, with cognitive faith and who have certainty regarding these signs and states that we have enumerated.
