Your punishment within You is sweetness, And distance from You is nearness.

You are the Essence (Ain) for the eye, And You are the heart for the heart.

It is enough for me that I Love what You love.

Al-Shibli cried out, tore his garment, and fell unconscious. Then he awoke and departed. The next day, he approached him again—and I was with him—and asked: "How is your step today?" He replied: "The highest of steps," then he recited:

I wondered at You and at me, You occupied me with Yourself, away from me.

You drew me so near to Yourself That I thought You were I.

He said: Al-Shibli cried out and tore his patched cloak and whatever he was wearing. Then he returned early the next morning—I and a group of his companions were with him—and asked: "How is your step today?" He replied: "The first step of the Knowers." It is related from him that he said: Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Shibli recited to us these verses by Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd—may God the Almighty have mercy on them both:

I remembered You, not because I forgot You for a moment, The easiest part of remembrance is the tongue's mention.

I nearly died of passion, without a doubt, While my heart wandered in its palpitations.

When ecstasy showed me that You are my Present One, I witnessed You existing in every place.

So I addressed an Existing One without speaking, And I observed a Known One without sight.