of inner meaning may be whispered only from heart to heart,
confided only from breast to breast.

Only heart to heart can speak the bliss of mystic knowers;
No messenger can tell it and no missive bear it.(54)

I am silent from weakness on many a matter,
For my words could not reckon them and my speech would fall short.(55)

O friend, till thou enter the garden of such mysteries, thou shalt never
set lip to the undying wine of this Valley. And shouldst thou taste of it,
thou wilt shield thine eyes from all things else, and drink of the wine of
contentment; and thou wilt loose thyself from all things else, and bind
thyself to Him, and throw thy life down in His path, and cast thy soul
away. However, there is no other in this region that thou need forget:
"There was God and there was naught beside Him."(56) For on this plane the
traveler witnesseth the beauty of the Friend in everything. Even in fire,
he seeth the face of the Beloved. He beholdeth in illusion the secret of
reality, and readeth from the attributes the riddle of the Essence. For he
hath burnt away the veils with his sighing, and unwrapped the shroudings
with a single glance; with piercing sight he gazeth on the new creation;
with lucid heart he graspeth subtle verities. This is sufficiently
attested by: "And we have made thy sight sharp in this day."(57)

After journeying through the planes of pure contentment, the traveler
cometh to

The Valley of Wonderment

and is tossed in the oceans of grandeur, and at every moment his wonder
groweth. Now he seeth the shape of wealth as poverty itself, and the
essence of freedom as sheer impotence. Now is he struck dumb with the
beauty of the All-Glorious; again is he wearied out with his own life. How
many a mystic tree hath this whirlwind of wonderment snatched by the
roots, how many a soul hath it exhausted. For in this Valley the traveler
is flung into confusion, albeit, in the eye of him who hath attained, such
marvels are esteemed and well beloved. At every moment he beholdeth a
wondrous world, a new creation, and goeth from astonishment to
astonishment, and is lost in awe at the works of the Lord of Oneness.

Indeed, O Brother, if we ponder each created thing, we shall witness a
myriad perfect wisdoms and learn a myriad new and wondrous truths. One of
the created phenomena is the dream. Behold how many secrets are deposited
therein, how many wisdoms treasured up, how many worlds concealed.