speech, the truth from the falsehood, and obedience from disobedience. Among that is if he wants to speak, the speech comes out uttering from the thought which distinguishes by the insight of the intellect; thus he speaks only with wisdom and does not bring a word except by the scale of the intellect. Among that is if he smells pleasant scents, he yearns for them and inclines toward them, and if he smells wicked scents, he dislikes them and avoids them. Among that are the sense of taste and the sense of touch. Each conveys its type to the heart, and the heart conveys what it attains to the intellect, so his affairs proceed according to the example. The example of the senses and the heart is like the example of the scholars who present what they know to the most learned and virtuous among them; he then makes known to them the science in which is salvation and through which life is sought. We have a man more learned than us and more virtuous; if you choose, I shall guide you to him and point you toward him."

The youth said: "I have chosen to hear what I desire of the gnosis of Allah — Exalted Glory — from you and I seek no substitute for you." The Noble One said: "It is of the nature of the rational one not to undertake a position until he knows it and masters it. Whoever does otherwise is attributed to ignorance and lack of understanding. Do you not see that the kings of time before now—from the Greeks, Persians, Sassanians (al-Kasrawiyyīn), and Romans—had established for the scholars, wise men, people of medicine, and astronomers a diwan [an administrative register/assembly]? They had a wise man who surpassed them in science and wisdom. If the King wanted to spend wealth upon them, he presented it to the wise man to know from him what he [the King] knows of wisdom. He begins by asking about the craft they undertake, and at that moment he makes the people into classes—class above class and rank above rank—to give each one of them according to his station, science, and gnosis. That continued for a long time. But when the ambitions of the kings grew small and their power short, they spent their wealth upon the fighters among their men and horsemen and those they trusted with their conditions. It is related that the scholars