Original content

English translation

The story of the people of Saba came to my mind, for by the breath of a fool their saba/breeze became pestilence. That Saba was like a very great city; you may hear of it as a tale from children. Children bring tales; many secrets and counsels are enclosed in their tales. They tell jests in tales; seek treasure in every ruin. There was a city very great and mighty, yet its worth was no more than a small coin. Very great, very wide, very long, hugely huge, the size of an onion. The people of ten cities were gathered in it, yet all of them were three unwashed-faced persons. In it were countless people and creatures, yet all of them were three raw eaters of cooked food. A soul that has not rushed toward the Beloved, though they be thousands, is half a person. One was very far-sighted and blind-eyed: blind to Solomon, yet seeing an ant's foot. Another was very sharp-eared and very deaf: there was no treasure in him, not a barleycorn of gold. The other was one-eyed, naked, bare, and corpse-hunting, yet the skirts of his garment were long. The blind man said, “Look, an army is arriving; I can see what people they are and how many.” The deaf man said, “Yes, I heard their noise, what they say openly and secretly.” The naked man said, “This is what I fear from them: that they will cut away my long skirt.” The blind man said, “Look, they have come near; get up, let us flee before wounds and fetters.” The deaf man kept saying, “Yes, the commotion is coming nearer; friends, beware!” The naked man said, “Alas, my skirt! They will cut it off out of greed, and I am not safe.” They abandoned the city and went out; in flight they entered a village. In that village they found a fat bird, yet there was not a particle of meat on it, wretched thing: a dead, dry bird, wounded by crows, its bones pitiful as dried dung. They ate from it as from a lion's hunt; from eating it each became full as an elephant. All three ate of it and became very fat; they became like three very great elephants. So fat that, from the bulk of each young one, he would not fit in the world. With such swelling and seven huge limbs, they sprang out through the crack of a door and went away. The road of people's death is an unseen road; it does not appear to sight, for it is a placeless road. Look, caravans follow one after another through this crack in the door, which is hidden. If you seek that crack at the door, you will not find it: it is very invisible, and yet so many departures pass through it.