The goodly women are for the goodly men, and the goodly men for the goodly women- these are innocent of what they say. They will have forgiveness and a generous provision. In the tasting of the lords of recognitions the generous provision is not the provision of the soul that is sometimes there and sometimes not. It is the provision of the spirit and the nourishment of the living self that is never cut off and always arrives continuously, neither cut off nor withheld [56:33]. What is nurtured by bread and water is one thing, what is nurtured by unmixed light is something else. When MuṣṬafā said, “I spend the night at my Lord; He gives me to eat and drink,” he was talking of the attributes of the spiritual, not the attributes of the bodily. Snow is not the opposite of fire as much as the spiritual is that of the bodily. Two antagonists are kept together in one house, apparently getting along with each other, but inwardly enemies. Once when his time had become short a great man was seen in revelry and delight. They asked, “What is this revelry?” He said, “What is surprising about it? Union with the Friend and separation from the enemy are near. Which day will be sweeter than the day when dawn opens up with the arrival of a drink and a blow? Which drink and which blow is that? It will put this idol-worshiper on the gallows and deliver this sultan from the dark fetters, carrying him on the Burāq of good fortune to the Pres- ence of Majesty.” “The spirits of the elect are in the grasp of exaltedness: He unveils His Essence to them and bestows on them the gentle favors of His attributes.”
