determined to worship the same god, and advance themselves if possible to a higher spiritual eminence than the Guru had attained. While travelling one night for the purpose of their worship they met a man carrying a fish in his hand. After mutual interrogations he said that he was the river god taking an offering to the Guru, and that it was from the Guru he had obtained his power, and not the Guru from him. He added: ‘I am water, he is air, a superior element; I am often contained in him.’ Saido and Gheho then went and prostrated themselves before the Guru. He asked them why they had come to him at that hour. They used formerly only to come after sunrise. They then confessed to him the whole story of their attempted worship of Khwaja Khizir, and begged his forgiveness. The Guru composed the following on that occasion:—
He who batheth in the immortal water of divine knowledge taketh with him the sixty-eight places of pilgrimage.
The Guru’s instruction is jewels and gems; by serving him his disciples find them.
There is no place of pilgrimage equal to the Guru;
The tank of consolation is contained in that Guru.
The Guru is a river whence pure water is ever obtained, and by which the filth of evil inclinations is washed away.
He who findeth the True Guru hath obtained perfect bathing, which maketh him a god out of a beast or a ghost.
He who is imbued with the true Name obtaineth it; that Guru is called sandal.
Fix thine attention on His feet by whose odour vegetables are perfumed.
prétend que ce nom fut donné à ce prophète à cause qu’il jouit d’une vie florissante et immortelle depuis qu’il eut bû de l’eau de la Fontaine. Plusieurs le confondent avec le prophète Élie, que nous disons faire sa demeure dans le Paradis terrestre et jouir de l’immortalité. Parce que l’arbre de vie étoit dans ce Paradis, et qu’il y avoit aussi une Fontaine, les Musalmans donnent à cette Fontaine le nom de Fontaine de Vie, et croyent que c’est de la boisson de son eau, aussi bien que du fruit de l’arbre de vie, qu’Élie entretient son immortalité. (D Herbelot.)
