Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Muslim / Sufi

13th Century

About Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

Timeline (1165 - 1240)

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi poetry, Muslim / Sufi, Muslim / Sufi poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry

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English version by
Michael A. Sells

Original Language
Arabic

As Night Let its Curtains Down in Folds

Themes

Heart

Lover and Beloved

Night

Recommended Books

	Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, by Henry Corbin
	Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality), by Michael A. Sells
	Ibn al-Arabi: Bezels of Wisdom (Classics of Western Spirituality), by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi / Edited by R. W. J. Austin
	Ibn Arabi, by William Chittick
	Ibn Arabi and the Voyage of No Return, by Claude Addas

More >>

Peace, Salma, and peace
to those who halt awhile
at al-Hima. It is right
for one like me to greet you.

Would it have hurt her
to return the greeting?
Ah, but a statuette
goddess is beyond control.

They left as night
let its curtains down in folds.
I told them of a lover
strange and lost,

Surrounded by yearnings,
struck by their arrows
on target always,
wherever he goes.

She smiled, showing her side teeth.
Lightning flashed.
I couldn't tell which of the two
split the darkness.

Isn't it enough she said
I am in his heart
where each moment he sees me,
isn't it, no?

-- from Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems, by Michael A. Sells

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Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World