'Attar, mistaking the sentiment uppermost
in the mind of the venerable devotee, ordered him to be gone, to which
he meekly rejoined: "Yes, I have nothing to prevent me from leaving thy
door, or, indeed, from quitting this world at once, as my sole
possession is this threadbare garment. But O 'Attar, I grieve for thee:
for how canst thou ever bring thyself to think of death--to leave all
these goods behind thee?" 'Attar replied that he hoped and believed that
he should die as contentedly as any dervish; upon which the aged
devotee, saying, "We shall see," placed his wooden bowl upon the ground,
laid his head upon it, and, calling on the name of God, immediately
resigned his soul. Deeply impressed with this incident, 'Attar at once
gave up his shop, and devoted himself to the study of Sufi
philosophy.[22]
[21] The Sufis are the mystics of Islam, and their poetry,
while often externally anacreontic--bacchanalian and
erotic--possesses an esoteric, spiritual signification:
the sensual world is employed to symbolise that which is
to be apprehended only by the _inward_ sense. Most of
the great poets of Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkey are
generally understood to have been Sufis.
[22] Sir Gore Ouseley's _Biographical Notices of Persian Poets_.
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