Suhrawardi - Three Treatises on Mysticism.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

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day?" The hoopoo replied: "This is a strange thing; all
movements are done in the day." The fairies said: "Perhaps
you are mad. How can anyone see a thing in the dark
day when the sun becomes dark?" He answered: "It is just
the opposite. You have all the lights of this world through
the light of the sun. All the luminous objects obtain light
and acquire brilliancy from it.
They call it "eye of the sun,"
because it is the source of light."
They compelled him (to explain) how anyone can see a
thing in the day. He said: "In imagining things we
connect them with ourselves. All persons see in the day
and behold, I am seeing. I am in the world of observation.
To my eyes the veils are removed. In spite of my doubts
I
perceive brilliant surfaces by way
of revelation."
The fairies, on hearing this story, forthwith began to
lament and raised a tumult and said to one another: "This
bird asserts perspicacity in the day when there is a presumption
of blindness." They immediately attacked the eyes of
the hoopoo with their beaks and claws and abused him and
called him "one who can see in the day" because purblindness
was a virtue to them. They said: "If you do not repent
there is fear of your death." The hoopoo thought:
"If I do not withdraw they
will kill me because mostly they
wound the eye; and death and blindness will occur simultaneously."
He received the inspiration "Speak to the people
according to their intelligence." He immediately closed his
eyes and said, "Here! I have also attained to your state and
become blind.' 7
When they found things to be thus, they refrained from
beating and charging. The hoopoo came to know that the
proposition, "To divulge th'e Divine secret is unbelief, to
divulge the secret of predestination is rebellion, and to
publish a secret is unbelief" is current amongst
the faries.