List of Stories in The Masnavi - Book III

Book III

• Preface (in prose)
• Proem
• The Travellers who ate the young Elephant
• Bilál’s mispronunciation in chanting the call to prayer
• Moses instructed by God how he should pray
• The response to sincere prayer
• The Countryman and the Townsman
• The people of Sabá and the Prophets
• How Jesus came forth from his cell and healed the sick
• The Falcon and the Ducks
• The people of Zarwán
• Majnún and Laylá’s dog
• The Jackal that fell into the dyeing-vat and pretended to be a Peacock
• The Braggart who pretended that he had dined well
• Bal’am the son of Bá’úr
• “And thou wilt surely know them in the perversion of their speech”
• Hárút and Márút
• Pharaoh’s dream of the coming of Moses
• The Mughal and the Egyptians
• The conception and birth of Moses
• The Snake-catcher and the frozen Snake
• Pharaoh and Moses
• The two Magicians who summoned their father from the grave
• Comparison of the Qur’án to the rod of Moses
• The Elephant in the dark house
• Noah and Canaan
• Infidelity and Predestination
• The Barber and the Man with grizzled hair
• The answer of Zayd to his assailant
• The Companions of the Prophet and the Qur’án
• The Lover who read a love-letter in the presence of his Beloved
• The Poor Man who prayed that he might gain a lawful livelihood without work
• Knowledge and Opinion
• The Teacher who fancied he was ill
• The Dervish who broke his vow
• The far-seeing Goldsmith
• The Magicians whom Pharaoh threatened to punish
• The complaint of the Mule to the Camel
• The Ass of ‘Uzayr
• The Shaykh who showed no grief at the death of his sons
• The Blind Man who regained his sight when he read the Qur’án
• The patience of Luqmán
• Buhlúl and the Dervish
• The Visions and Miracles of Daqúqi
• Moses and Khizr
• The flight of Jesus from the Fool
• The Children’s Tale of the Three Worldlings
• The Hares and the Elephant
• Noah and the building of the Ark
• The Thief who said he was beating a Drum
• The meaning of Prudence
• The Vow made by the Dogs every winter
• The Divine Providence manifested in the creation of Hell
• Kings compared to the Báb-i Saghír at Jerusalem
• The Súfí who fell into ecstasy on seeing an empty food-wallet
• Jacob’s love for Joseph
• The Amir and the Slave who took delight in the ritual Prayer
• The Faith of the Worldly
• Hidden Saints
• Anas and the Prophet’s napkin
• How the Prophet saved a caravan of Arabs from death in the Desert
• Miracles wrought by the Prophet on the same occasion
• Need and distress call forth the Bounty of God
• The Babe that bore witness to the Prophet
• The Eagle that carried off the Prophet’s boot
• The Man who asked Moses to teach him the language of Beasts and Birds
• The Woman whose twenty children all died in infancy
• Why Hamza in his old age refused to protect himself with a coat of mail
• The advantages of Deliberation
• The death of Bilál
• The World and the Body
• Statute and Analogy
• The reverence due to the Shaykhs from their disciples
• Conventional and intuitive knowledge
• Faná and Baqá
• The Wakíl of Bukhárá and his Master
• The appearance of the Holy Spirit in human shape to Mary, the Mother of Jesus
• The most beautiful City
• The Lover in the haunted Mosque
• The worldliness of Galen
• How Satan deceived the Quraysh
• The Boy who beat a tomtom in order to scare a Camel on which they were beating a drum
• Comparison of the true Believer suffering tribulation to peas being boiled in a pot
• The Mathnawí and its critics
• The outer and inner sense of the Qur’án
• Why the Saints take refuge in mountains and caves
• How the mountains joined in the song of David
• The Foal that would not drink
• The cry of the Devil
• How each element in the Body is drawn to its original source, and the Soul likewise
• The Prophet and the Captives
• The Gnat and the Wind in the presence of Solomon
• The perfidious Lover