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Henry Corbin – Alone with the Alone

One night [the poet Ibn ‘Arabi relates,] I was performing the ritual circumambulations of the Ka’aba.

My spirit savoured a profound peace; a gentle emotion of which I was perfectly aware had taken hold of me. I left the paved surface because of the pressing crowd and continued to circulate on the sand.

Suddenly a few lines came to my mind; I recited them loudly enough to be heard not only by myself but by someone following me if there had been anyone following me.

Ah! to know if they know what heart they have possessed!
How my heart would like to know what mountain paths they have taken!
Ought you to suppose them safe and sound, or to suppose that they have perished?
The fedeli d'amore remain perplexed in love, exposed to every peril.

No sooner had I recited these verses than I felt on my shoulder the touch of a hand softer than silk. I turned around and found myself in the presence of a young girl, a princess from among the daughters of the Greeks.

Never had I seen a woman more beautiful of face, softer of speech, more tender of heart, more spiritual in her ideas, more subtle in her symbolic allusions.

She surpassed all the people of her time in refinement of mind and cultivation, in beauty and in knowledge.