Ali whispered into the ears of the darkness his words, which followed the lilting melody echoing deep in his breast. Between his eyes and his surroundings, phantoms of the night proliferated like vapors given off by his hot tears, and on the walls of the temples appeared magical forms in all the colors of the rainbow.

In this manner an hour passed, as he rejoiced in his tears, delighting in his anguish, listening to the beating of his heart, gazing at what lay behind existing things as though the outlines of this life were slowly fading before his eyes, replaced by a dream wondrous in its charms, terrifying in its apprehensions. Like a prophet contemplating the stars in the heavens in expectation of being struck by a revelation, he awaited the arrival of each minute, his quick sighs interrupting his gentle breathing. His soul would leave him and swim about him, then return, as though it were searching among those ruins for a lost loved one.

Dawn broke, disturbing the stillness with its breezes; violet light flooded through the ether, and the sky smiled mournfully. An apparition of his beloved appeared to him in a dream. Sparrows peeked out from the fissures in the walls, passing from one pillar to another and warbling their soliloquies, announcing the approach of day. Ali stood, placing his hand on his burning forehead. He looked around stiffly and, like Adam when the breath of God opened his eyes, he viewed everything he saw with wonder. He approached his ewes, calling them, and they rose, shook themselves, and walked behind him quietly toward verdant pastures. Ali preceded his flock, his eyes fixed on the cloudless sky. His feelings, now disconnected from his senses, made clear to him the mysteries and obscurities of being, showing him at a single glance what had passed away and what remained of bygone ages. In the wink of an eye they caused him to forget it all and restored to him an intense yearning. He found his essence veiled from his inmost spirit, as the eye is veiled from the light, and with each of his sighs a flame blazed forth from his burning heart.

He arrived at a brook that divulged by its purling the mysteries of the surrounding fields, and sat on its bank beneath willow branches that dangled above the water as though thirsting for a sip of its sweetness. His ewes bent down to graze on the grasses, the morning dew glistening against the white of their wool. A minute had not passed before he felt a quickening of his pulse and a renewed agitation of his spirit. Like a sleeper aroused by a playful sunbeam, he saw a girl appear from among the trees, carrying a jar on her shoulder and advancing slowly toward the creek, her naked feet moist with dew.

When she reached the edge of the stream and stooped to fill her jug, she glanced toward the other bank and found herself staring into Ali’s eyes. With a slight moan, she threw down the vessel and edged back a bit, with the look of one who had been lost and then found a familiar face . . . A minute passed, each second a lamp guiding their hearts unto their hearts, weaving from the quietude exotic songs that recalled to their souls the echo of cryptic memories. They saw each other in a different place, surrounded by forms and phantoms distant from that brook and those trees. Each of them gazed at the other with tender affection, discovering comely features, listening to the other’s sighs with all the intensity of which their emotions were capable, confiding in the other with all the eloquence of their spirits.