Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/236

224 ye have gone about to do waste in my garden? I know, as if I had been with thee, O blind man, that thou tookest the cripple on thy back and he guided thee, till thou borest him to the trees.” Then he punished them grievously and put them out of the garden. Now the blind man is the similitude of the body, and the cripple that of the soul, for that it hath no power of motion but by the body; the garden is the works, for which the creature is rewarded or punished, and the overseer is the reason, which commandeth to good and forbiddeth from evil. Thus the body and the soul are partners in reward and punishment.’ (Q.) ‘Which of the learned men is most worthy of praise, according to thee?’ (A.) ‘He who is learned in the knowledge of God and whose knowledge profiteth him.’ (Q.) ‘And who is this?’ (A.) ‘He who is instant in seeking to please his Lord and avoid His wrath.’ (Q.) ‘And which of them is the most excellent?’ (A.) ‘He who is most learned in the knowledge of God.’ (Q.) ‘And which is the most experienced of them?’ (A.) ‘He who is most constant in doing according to his knowledge.’ (Q.) ‘And which is the purest-hearted of them?’ (A.) ‘He who is most assiduous in preparing for death and praising God and least of them in hope, and indeed he who familiarizes his soul with the terrors of death is as one who looks into a clear mirror, for that he knows the truth, and the mirror still increases in clearness and brilliance.’ (Q.) ‘What are the goodliest of treasures?’ (A.) ‘The treasures of heaven.’ (Q.) ‘Which is the goodliest of the treasures of heaven?’ (A.) ‘The praise and magnification of God.’ (Q.) ‘Which is the most excellent of the treasures of earth?’ (A.) ‘The practice of kindness.’ (Q.) ‘Tell me of three different things, knowledge and judgment and wit, and of that which unites them.’ (A.) ‘Knowledge comes of learning, judgment of experience and wit of reflection, and they are all stablished and united