Discourses of Rumi

40 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI“Our king did not know a word of Arabic,”they murmured amongst themselves. “How is itthat he nodded his head so correctly? He musthave known Arabic all these years and kept it hiddenfrom us. If we have ever uttered incivilities inArabic, then woe is us!”Now the king had a favorite slave. So thecourtiers assembled together and gave the slave ahorse, a mule, and a sum of money, and theypromised to give him this much again. “Just findout whether or not the king knows Arabic,” theysaid to him. “If he does not, how was it that henodded just at the right places? Was it a miracle?Was it divine inspiration?”Finally one day the slave found his opportunity.The king was out hunting, and the slave perceivedthat he was in a good mood, since the hunthad gone well. So he asked the king point blank.The king burst out laughing.“By God, I don’t know Arabic,” he said. “Asfor nodding and applauding, I knew of coursewhat the poet’s object was in composing thatpoem, and so I nodded and applauded.”So it was realized that the root of the matterwas the purpose desired; the poem itself was