This is not a face that lies.

"When Abu Bakr met Muhammad, he said
"This is not a face that lies."

Abu Bakr was one whose bowl
has fallen from the roof.

There's no hiding the fragrance that comes from an ecstatic.
A polished mirror cannot help reflecting.

Muhammad once was talking to a crowd of chieftains, princes with great influence,
when a poor blind man interrupted him.

Muhammad frowned and said to the man, "Let me attend to these visitors,
This is a rare chance,
whereas you are already my friend.
We'll have ample time."

Then someone nearby said, "That blind man may be
worth a hundred kings. Remember the proverb,
Human beings are mines."

World-power means nothing. Only the unsayable,
jeweled inner life matters.

Muhammad replied, "Do not think that I'm concerned with being acknowledged by these authorities.

If a beetle moves toward rosewater, it proves that the solution is diluted.
Beetles love dung, not rose essence.

If a coin is eager to be tested by the touchstone,
that coin itself may be a touchstone.

A thief loves the night.
I am day. I reveal essences.

A calf thinks God is a cow.
A donkey's theology changes
when someone new pets it
and gives it what it wants.

I am not a cow, or thistles for camels
to browse on. People who insult me
are only polishing the mirror."

- Rumi