Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-223).

Nassuh -- Images of the unseen -- Two ways of running -- In Baghdad, dreaming of Cairo: in Cairo, dreaming of Baghdad -- Dying, laughing -- Human honesty -- Dalqak's message -- Faraj's wedding night -- Bestami -- Eyes-shut facing eyes-rolling-around -- The visions of Daquqi -- Sexual urgency, what a woman's laughter can do, andthe nature of true virility -- The court poet -- Spiritual seniority -- The law student and the shroud-maker -- The trick of hiding in a box -- Berouged old ladies -- Ayaz and the king's pearl -- A man and a woman arguing -- Muhammed and the huge eater -- The pear tree -- Two ways of coming down a mountain -- Spilling the rose oil -- When a madman smiles at you -- A song about a donkey -- Childhood friends -- Chinese art and Greek art -- Tattooing in Qazwin -- A subtle theological point -- A One-grain ant -- The private banquet -- Cry out in your weakness -- Flowing gifts -- A goat kneels! -- Three creatures -- The ocean duck -- An early morning eye -- Collect the pieces -- Following the sunset -- Solomon and Sheba -- In between stories -- The worm's waking -- Put this design in your carpet -- Lovers want each other completely naked -- A house with only one door -- The importance of gourdcrafting -- Chickpea to cook -- A presence like rain.

Rowdy, ecstatic, and sometimes stern, these teaching stories and fables reveal new and very human properties in Rumi's vision. Included here are the notorious "Latin parts" that Reynold Nicholson felt were too unseemly to appear in English in his 1920s translation. For Rumi, anything that human beings do--however compulsive--affords a glimpse into the inner life. Here are more than 40 fables or teaching stories that deal with love, laughter, death, betrayal, and the soul. The stories are exuberant, earthy, and bursting with vitality--much like a painting by Hieronymus Bosch or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The characters are guilty, lecherous, tricky, ribald, and finally possessors of opened souls. This is an entertaining collection from one of the greatest spiritual poets of all time, rendered by his most popular translator.