The Dabistan

266

malady of the body has a curative medicine, so every
malady of the spirit has also its means of core.
Thus, as the pulse and the urine are indicative of
the state of bodies, so dream and vision indicate the
state of the spirit. On that account, the devotees
relate the visions to their Shaikh, who is the doctor
of the soul.

The Sufis say, that upon the way of pilgrimage
there are seven mertebah, " degrees/' The first de-
gree consists of penitence, obedience, and medita-
tion, and in this degree the light is, as it were, green.
The second degree is the purity of the spirit from sa-
tanic qualities, violence, and brutality ; because, as
long as the spirit is the slave of satanic qualities, it
is subject to concupiscence, and this is the quality
of fire. In this state Iblis evinces his strength, and
when the spirit is liberated from this, it is distressed
with the quality of fierceness, which may be said
flashing, and this is conformable to the property of
wind. Then it becomes insatiable, '• and this is
similar to water. After this it obtains quietness,
and this quality resembles earth.2 In the degree of
repose, the light is as it were blue, and the utmost

1 The text has ./^U malhamah, which means " gluttonous, eager

" after any thing to excess;" if mulhim, it means " inspired."

2 The ecstatic conditions desired by the Sufis are attainable only in a
perfect apathy, that is, in a cessation of all action of the corporeal organs
and intellectual faculties.