"A lover is he who is chill in hell fire; A knower is he who is dry in the sea."

"O My Brother! Until thou enter the Egypt of love, thou shalt never come to the Joseph of the Beauty of the Friend; and until, like Jacob, thou forsake thine outward eyes, thou shalt never open the eye of thine inward being; and until thou burn with the fire of love, thou shalt never commune with the Lover of Longing.

A lover feareth nothing and no harm can come nigh him: Thou seest him chill in the fire and dry in the sea.

A lover is he who is chill in hell fire;
A knower is he who is dry in the sea. 2"

-Bahá'u'lláh,  The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, p. 9

 2. Persian mystic poem.

Mark Tobey

"For the infidel, error—for the faithful, faith; For Aṭṭár’s heart, an atom of Thy pain."

" ... In this city the heaven of ecstasy is upraised and the world-illuming sun of yearning shineth, and the fire of love is ablaze; and when the fire of love is ablaze, it burneth to ashes the harvest of reason.

Now is the traveler unaware of himself, and of aught besides himself. He seeth neither ignorance nor knowledge, neither doubt nor certitude; he knoweth not the morn of guidance from the night of error. He fleeth both from unbelief and faith, and deadly poison is a balm to him. Wherefore Aṭṭár 1 saith:

For the infidel, error—for the faithful, faith;
For Aṭṭár’s heart, an atom of Thy pain."

-Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, p. 8

1. Faríḍu’d-Dín Aṭṭár (ca. 1150–1230 A.D.), the great Persian Súfí poet.

"Be as naught, if thou wouldst kindle the fire of being and be fit for the pathway of love."

"Love accepteth no existence and wisheth no life: He seeth life in death, and in shame seeketh glory. To merit the madness of love, man must abound in sanity; to merit the bonds of the Friend, he must be full of spirit. Blessed the neck that is caught in His noose, happy the head that falleth on the dust in the pathway of His love. Wherefore, O friend, give up thy self that thou mayest find the Peerless One, pass by this mortal earth that thou mayest seek a home in the nest of heaven. Be as naught, if thou wouldst kindle the fire of being and be fit for the pathway of love."


-Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, pp. 9-10

Laurent Chehere

"... he will set ajar the gate of truth and piety, and shut the doors of vain imaginings."

... "His inner eyes will open and he will privily converse with his Beloved; he will set ajar the gate of truth and piety, and shut the doors of vain imaginings. He in this station is content with the decree of God, and seeth war as peace, and findeth in death the secrets of everlasting life. With inward and outward eyes he witnesseth the mysteries of resurrection in the realms of creation and the souls of men, and with a pure heart apprehendeth the divine wisdom in the endless Manifestations of God. In the ocean he findeth a drop, in a drop he beholdeth the secrets of the sea.

Split the atom’s heart, and lo!
Within it thou wilt find a sun. 1" ...

-Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, pp. 11-12


 1. Persian mystic poem.

"Love is a veil betwixt the lover and the loved one; More than this I am not permitted to tell."

"Wherefore, relevant to this, Khájih ‘Abdu’lláh 7 —may God the Most High sanctify his beloved spirit—hath made a subtle point and spoken an eloquent word as to the meaning of “Guide Thou us on the straight path,” 8 which is: “Show us the right way, that is, honor us with the love of Thine Essence, that we may be freed from turning toward ourselves and toward all else save Thee, and may become wholly Thine, and know only Thee, and see only Thee, and think of none save Thee.”

Nay, these even mount above this station, wherefore it is said:

Love is a veil betwixt the lover and the loved one;
More than this I am not permitted to tell. 9"

-Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, p. 16

7. Shaykh Abú Ismá’íl ‘Abdu’lláh Ansárí of Hirát (1006–1088 A.D.) Súfí leader, descended from the Prophet’s companion Abú Ayyúb. Chiefly known for his Munáját (Supplications) and Rubá’íyyát (Quatrains). “Ansár” means the “Helpers” or companions of Muḥammad in Medina. 
8. Qur’án 1:5. 
9. The Mathnaví.

" ... the people of the Valleys above this see the end and the beginning as one ..."

"Such is the state of the wayfarers in this Valley; but the people of the Valleys above this see the end and the beginning as one; nay, they see neither beginning nor end, and witness neither “first” nor “last.” 5 Nay rather, the denizens of the undying city, who dwell in the green garden land, see not even “neither first nor last”; they fly from all that is first, and repulse all that is last. For these have passed over the worlds of names, and fled beyond the worlds of attributes as swift as lightning. Thus is it said: “Absolute Unity excludeth all attributes.” 6 And they have made their dwelling-place in the shadow of the Essence."

-Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys , p. 15

 5. Qur’án 57:3. 
 6. Saying attributed to ‘Alí.






Daguerreotype of unknown person 
Library of Congress

" ... all the variations which the wayfarer in the stages of his journey beholdeth in the realms of being, proceed from his own vision."

"It is clear to thine Eminence that all the variations which the wayfarer in the stages of his journey beholdeth in the realms of being, proceed from his own vision. We shall give an example of this, that its meaning may become fully clear: Consider the visible sun; although it shineth with one radiance upon all things, and at the behest of the King of Manifestation bestoweth light on all creation, yet in each place it becometh manifest and sheddeth its bounty according to the potentialities of that place. For instance, in a mirror it reflecteth its own disk and shape, and this is due to the sensitivity of the mirror; in a crystal it maketh fire to appear, and in other things it showeth only the effect of its shining, but not its full disk. And yet, through that effect, by the command of the Creator, it traineth each thing according to the quality of that thing, as thou observest.

In like manner, colors become visible in every object according to the nature of that object. For instance, in a yellow globe, the rays shine yellow; in a white the rays are white; and in a red, the red rays are manifest. Then these variations are from the object, not from the shining light. And if a place be shut away from the light, as by walls or a roof, it will be entirely bereft of the splendor of the light, nor will the sun shine thereon.

Thus it is that certain invalid souls have confined the lands of knowledge within the wall of self and passion, and clouded them with ignorance and blindness, and have been veiled from the light of the mystic sun and the mysteries of the Eternal Beloved; they have strayed afar from the jewelled wisdom of the lucid Faith of the Lord of Messengers, have been shut out of the sanctuary of the All-Beauteous One, and banished from the Ka‘bih 4 of splendor. Such is the worth of the people of this age!"

-Bahá'u'lláh,The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, pp. 18-20 



 4. The holy Sanctuary at Mecca. Here the word means “goal.”

Anne Archer