In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.
Chapter 60: On Knowing the Elements, the Dominion of the Higher World over the Lower World, in Which Revolution of the Outermost Sphere This Human World Came to Exist, and Which Spiritual Reality Is Ours
The elements are four mothers,
and they are the daughters of the world of the spheres.
From them we were born, so our existence was
in the world of the elements and the angels.
God gave us our food in ears of grain,
through the working of a single ear, with no partner.
So too He multiplied our reward with seven
ears of grain, by the word of one who utters no falsehood.
Our time came as seven of the thousands,
through the winding round of lights and darknesses.
Notes
Translator’s note TN1179-1: The elements are mothers in relation to what is generated from them and daughters in relation to the celestial spheres. The two senses of amlāk in this poem are explained by the author on the next page.
