state and my absence, and I informed him of my affair. He asked me for the letter I brought for him; he broke the seal, read it, thanked Allah for my safety, and promised to deliver to me what I desired from him. I stayed under his promise for a long time. One day, while I was awake with him and found an opportunity, I leapt to his foot and kissed it, placing it over my eye, and said: "O my master, if you see fit to favor me with what you promised, for what I am in of the torment of the heart has grown long, and I fear that death will meet me before reaching the goal."
He said: "With love and honor! Rejoice, for that which you desire and demand of me is difficult and made difficult; it is such that once you know it, you might deny it and thus deserve metamorphosis (al-masūkhiya) by your denial. Have you not heard what was related:
From Amir Al-Muminin — Exalted Glory — that he said: "Indeed, our science is difficult and made difficult; none can bear it except a near angel, or a sent prophet, or a believer whose heart Allah has tested for faith."
You are in ease regarding your affair as long as you do not know what you asked me about. But if you know it and then deny it, or if doubt enters you regarding it, or you suspect it, you shall be transferred to metamorphosis." He [the narrator] said: I said to him: "If I remain firm upon it, acknowledge it, and do not deny it nor reject it, what will become of me?" He said: "You shall be one drinking from the treasuries of Allah's science, and you shall enter into the fold of the spiritual world and leave the world of physical murkiness." I said to him: "O my master, I am trusting in Allah — Exalted Glory — that He will keep me firm upon what I desire and join me to the subtle spiritual world." He said: "May Allah keep you firm with the firm word, and make what you hear from me of the gnosis of Allah stable, and not make it a temporary deposit."
He said: I said to him, "Favor me, O my master." He said: "Indeed, what you desire from me is difficult and made difficult. If you hear it from