sufi trobar clus and spanish. lópez-baralt

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The Sufi Trobar clus and SpanishMysticism: A Shared Symbolism(Part II)

Luce Lpez-BaraltTranslated by Andrew Hurley

http://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/apr98/3.htmFirst part of this study appeared in Iqbal Review, October 1997.Dr Baralt argued that the degree to which the mysticalliterature of Spain came under the inuence of !slam is muchgreater than had been studied. Focusing on such great "guresof #hristian mysticism as St $ohn of the #ross and St %eresa of&'ila she presented her thesis with reference to the (eyconcepts, symbols and recurrent motifs that are found in thesewor(s. )art ! was de'oted to preliminary obser'ations andstudied the imagery of *Wine and Mystical Drunkenness* and*Dar( +ight of the Soul* in the or(s of St $ohn of the #ross. !npart !! she continues to in'estigate further and draws ourattention toward the close parallels between the two traditions.

The process of assimilating the sthetics, the mysticism, andthe narrative and metaphoric symbolic devices that werepresent in the literature of their Moorish neighbours went onamong the hristians of astille for hundreds of years! someday "the co#presence of that literature in $panish letters% will betalked about with the same naturalness as we say today that&irgil and 'vid were present in the literature of the si(teenthcentury)

*m+rico astro

(Part II)

(c) Inward illumination. The living fame o love and the "lamps o

re."

-et us now turn our attention to another of St $ohn of the #rosss most importantsymbols/ inward illumination. !t is mainly in his poem *lama de amor viva,* or *%he-i'ing Flame of -o'e,* which has not recei'ed a great deal of attention from scholars,that St $ohn celebrates light, the ames in which his ecstatic soul burns, and themysterious *lamps of "re* that illuminate his soul at the instant of its transformationinto 0od. &s a symbol light is, of course, uni'ersal we see it in the )seudo2Dionysiuselestial -ierarchies,and 3ircea 4liade calls our attention to the many cultures thatha'e adopted it as their own/ $udaism, 5ellenism, gnosticism, syncretism, #hristianityin general. But in St $ohn of the #ross many of the details of the symbol seem, onceagain, to be Su".

From its earliest beginnings !slamic mysticism was obsessed with the trope of

illumination6perhaps, as 4dward $abra $uri 81: and &nnemarie Schimmel suggest,because !slam fre;uently merged the ideas of )lotinus and )lato with those ofecuted,* d. 1191:, is also called *$heikh al#Ishr/q,* master or teacherof the philosophy of illumination, due to his many writings on the subect/ some "ftytreatises in &rabic and )ersian 8showing inuences from &'icenna, 5ellenism, andimportant ancient !rani and 4astern elements:, among which one might mention his

ikmat al#ishr/q8*%he )hilosophy of !llumination*: and -ay/kil an#n.r8*%he &ltars of-ight*:. 5is followers insisted so emphatically upon this interior light that they earned
http://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/apr98/3.htmhttp://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/apr98/3.htm


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for themsel'es the epithet ishr/qiyy.n,literally *illuminated* or *enlightened* 8in theradical sense of the word/ inwardly lighted/ alumbrados:, precisely li(e thatpersecuted sect in si>teenth2century Spain. For St $ohn of the #ross, the accusationthat he was an alumbradowas 'ery dangerous, and indeed weighed hea'ily againsthim with the !n;uisition, but among his !slamic counterparts the epithet was neitherdangerous nor peorati'e nor at all uncommon. !bn ?&rab= uses it, in fact, to refer to

one of his authorities/ *One of the illuminatitold me* 8%&& @A:. e "nd the samerespect accorded the epithet in &l20haCl=, who, referring to a Su" teacher, says inthe Iy/8!, 17E2197:/ *& man, one of those whom the uncreated light illumines withits splendors. . . * 8cf)&sin, 0spiritualidad!!/E:. %he motif of illumination is commonthroughout !slamic mysticism, which ga'e it se'eral technical names, among them1aw/2id8e>cess of light or spiritual illumination in the heart G&l25uw=r=, @AH:. #riticsha'e always ac(nowledged the importance of illumination in Su" literature/ Domingode Santa %eresa saw among the ShCdhilites *an e>aggerated dependence on interiorillumination, on the di'ine brightness* 817: while &nnemarie Schimmel, morepositi'ely, alludes to the *highly de'eloped light metaphysics* of &l20haCl=s 3icheof ights8Mystical Dimensions9E:.

5ighly de'eloped and highly detailed/ in his Iy/,&l20haCl= assigns illumination to

the third degree of taw

4d or oneness with 0od/ *au troisiIme GdegrJH on. . .contemple GlKnitJ de DieuH par illumination intrieure* 8@1: while for the later &bL l2asan al ShCdhal= it is the fourth degree of spiritual ascension, in which *0odilluminates the soul with the light of original intellect in the midst of the lights ofmystical certainty.* But the ele'enth2century mystic 5uw=r=, e'er concerned withe>actitude, ma(es a subtle distinction between the light of illumination and the "rethat may cast that light/ *%here is a diMerence between one who is burned by 5is3aesty in the "re of lo'e and one who is illuminated by 5is beauty in the light of

contemplation* 85ashf al#Ma6.b,in Schimmel, Mystical DimensionsE:. &nd althoughin many passages St $ohn of the #ross spo(e of the interior light with which the*Father of Brightness* 8!ac. 1/17 &'@E: illuminates his spirit, he insisted a greatdeal more on the *li'ing "re of lo'e* which is the soul at the moment of itstransformation into 0od. %his is the same metaphor the impassioned Su"s employed

throughout the 3iddle &ges, hundreds of years before the emblem of the Sacred5eart of $esus and 3ary burning with ames of lo'e became popular6a phenomenonwhich occurred, according to the Dictionnaire de $piritualit+8'ol. , )aris, 19N: inthe se'enteenth and eighteenth centuries.

%his distinction, and St $ohns poem on the *ame* and his highly detailedcommentaries on that poem, percei'ed within the conte>t of the 4uropeanenaissance as so original, loo( less and less strange or *foreign* to us within the

conte>ts of literary !slam. &'icenna, for e>ample, was able to recognie the "fth/l of

the ecstatic state because of the brilliant 7ames 8not light: of direct (nowledge of&llah 8cf))area 7@:6a "re that inames *his soul at its 'ery deepest center* andwhich the philosopher calls, technically, *qalb.* !n'ariably precise in his treatment ofsymbols, PubrC establishes the diMerence between the "re of the de'il or demon andthe spiritual "re of dhikr8repeated prayer, memory of 0od, withdrawal inward:, whichthe mystic will surely recognie *comme un amboient ardent et pur, animJ dun

mou'ement ascendant et rapide* 8#orbin, 2homme 11211A PubrC p. @:. ?&Crcelebrates that same ame poetically/ *hat is wa6dQ 8ecstasy: R to become "rewithout the presence of the sun* 8Schimmel, Mystical DimensionsA@2A9:.

hile Fr #risgono "nds that St $ohns *-i'ing Fire of -o'e* and the glosses on thatpoem remind him of Boscns line *O "re of li'ing lo'e*, and while Demaso &lonso

would hear echoes of the *Boscn 8 la divine* of Sebastin of #rdoba, my own 'iew isthat we can "nd parallels in Su" mysticism that are perhaps e'en more signi"cant.


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+or are they hard to document. %he most noteworthy of the tropes found in Su"sm isundoubtedly that of the lamps of "re6an image that Barui, perhaps seeing ase>cessi'ely enigmatic, calls *asse pau're* 8ET:. But this is the lamp which, with fewe>ceptions, mystically illuminates the center of the soul of that Su" who has begun tofollow the mystical path. BCya=d celebrates *ha'ing within oneself the lamp ofeternity* 8+icholson 79: LbehCn of Sh=rC 81T9: notes the *nombreuses lampes

;ui rJpandent une 'i'e lumiIre* within his soul 8#orbin, 2homme 79: &l20haCl=insists upon the splendor and brightness of *the light of the lamp that burns in hisheart* 8&s

n, 0spiritualidad 71: while !bn ?&rab= teaches that the heart is thedwelling2place of 0od and that the gnostic should *illumine it with the lamps of the

celestial and di'ine 'irtues until its light hath penetrated into e'ery corner* 8&sn, 0lIslamA:. %he mystical lamps become 8one must use the word: a commonplace ofSu"sm, reappearing o'er and o'er again among religious writers, thin(ers, andteachers of !slam in many lands and many periods. %his tradition would appear toha'e had its origin in the many commentaries on the famous UurCnic sLrah of thelamp 8A/N:/

0od is the light of the 5ea'ens and of the 4arth. 5is -ight is li(e a niche inwhich GthereH is a lamp6the lamp encased in glass6the glass, as it were, aglistening star. From a blessed tree is it lighted, the oli'e neither of the 4astnor of the est, whose oil would well nigh shine out, e'en though "re touchedit not !t is light upon light. 0od guideth whom 5e will to 5is light, and 0odsetteth forth parables to men, for 0od (noweth all things 8odwellstranslation:.

!n his wor( entitled 9al :#;l#maabbah8*%reatise Kpon -o'e*:, &l23uCsib=, born inBasra in 7@1, interpreted this sLrah in a *mystical* way/ 0od lights anine>tinguishable lamp that illuminates the most secret *ca'erns* or ori"ces of thegnostics heart/ *hen 0od (indles that lamp in the heart of 5is ser'ant, it burns"ercely in the cre'ices of his heart GandH he is lighted by it* 8&rberry, $u:sm NT:.&nother who applied this sura to his pri'ate spiritual e>periences was &l20haCl=,who in The 3iche of ights underscored, as St $ohn of the #ross did also, theautonomous nature of this interior lamp/ *self2luminous and with no e>ternal source*

8Ba(htiar T:.%hese symbolic lamps, tended for such a long time by the 3uslims, would seemsomehow to be mirrored in the image St $ohn lifts from the Song of Songs6*;uia

fortis est un mors dilectio, dura sicut infernus mulatio, lampades eus, lampadesignis at;ue ammarum,* though St $ohn drains away the literal Biblical meaning andreinterprets those *lampades* or ames of blaing "re in terms 'ery similar to thosewe ha'e ust loo(ed at. &nd there is yet another surprise/ St $ohn of the #rosscoincides detail for detail with se'eral of the 3uslim mystics in his interpretation ofthese spiritual lamps/ for &l20haCl= they signify the *archetypes or Di'ine +amesand Uualities* 83iche for ights,cf)Ba(htiar T:, and for the ShCdhilites, through !bn?KbbCd of ondas $haral#ikam8!, E9:, *the lights of the Gdi'ineH attributes* 8&sin,


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G%heH splendor that this lamp of 0od gi'es Gto the soulH insofar as it isgoodness. . . , Gand,H neither more nor less, it is the lamp of ustice, and ofstrength, and of mercy, and of all the other attributes which together arerepresented to the soul in 0od 8,/ &',@7:.

%he words of -aleh Ba(htiar in her analysis of the Su" symbol of the lamp of "rewould appear to apply e;ually to St $ohn of the #ross. For Ba(htiar, the lamp of "re is

*related to the intelligence for it is this faculty which recognies the &rchetypes orDi'ine +ames or Uualities* 8T:. St $ohn, howe'er, and as usual, supports hise>planation of the symbol with that Biblical passage referred to abo'e/ *Pnows wellthe soul the truth of that said by the Spouse in the Song of Songs, when he said thatthe lamps GcoalsH of love were lamps of :re and 7ame8@/E:* 8/ &'@7:. 5ere, St

$ohns reading of the literal words of the Bible is somewhat forced the result is togi'e them, as on so many other occasions, an interpretation concordant with theSymbolism of !slamic mysticism. 3ight this sincere yet culturally hybrid #hristian be,at least partially and perhaps unwittingly, *islamiciing* the ScripturesQ

5e does islamicie at least his own literature, for the many detailed parallelscontinue. One of these parallels is the lamp as certain (nowledge of 0od. For theSu"s, the spiritual lamps or lights are the dwelling2place of consciousness/ mystical

certainty, the fourth stage in &bL2l2

asan al ShCdhal=s

abaq/t, $ha>r/n4, 11, 1T211:and for &bL afal2Suhraward= the degree of*nw/r al#yaq4n or *lights of certainty.*For St $ohn of the #ross, too, the (nowledge of 0ods attributes leads to the total(nowledge of 0od/ *Oh what delights in which it is to such a degree known* 8/17&'@@T:. %he process ends, in St $ohns words, with *the transformation of the soulinto 0odG, whichH is totally unspea(able GineMableH* 8,/@ &',@7E:. For Suhraward=too, this is the "nal transformation of the soul into 0od, the

aqq al#yaq4nor *point atwhich the lo'er is immersed into the light of contemplation. . . and is transformed,and this is the Supreme degree of oneness 8)area 9E:. !n order for this wonder tooccur, the "re and the lamps ha'e puri"ed the soul of all that is not 0od/ St $ohn, ifone is to udge by his own commentaries, would fully agree with the 'i'idinterpretation that PubrC gi'es the purifying action of the "re of dhikr 8remembranceof 0odRwithdrawal inward:/ it ames up in the soul, proclaiming *an/, wa l/ ghayr4 *

8*!, and nothing else*: and oins its ame to those of the mystics (indled heart, andall is then *n.run >al/ n.r* 8PubrC, !!/A:/ light upon light, as the UurCn says. %hat is,*Bride into the Bridegroom transformed.*

!n both St $ohn of the #ross and the Su"s, the soul has been prepared for thistransformati'e union because it has been puri"ed or cleansed beforehand of all itsimpurities. St $ohn alludes metaphorically to these impurities again and again, thoughschematically/ *if we were to spea( on purpose of the ugly, dirty "gure which theappetites present to the soul, we would "nd no thing, howe'er co'ered with cobwebsand 'ermin it may be, . . . nor any other "lthy, dirty thing that might e>ist or that onemight imagine in this life, to which we might compare it* 83!/ 9/ &'@:. But inspite of the a'owed impossibility of comparison, more than once St $ohn, li(e St

%heresa, compares this spiritual sensuality with *animals* 8, /7 &',911:. &ndonce again it is the imaginati'e PubrC who oMers a 'i'id portrayal of the allegorical

motif, gi'ing the impression that he is amplifying upon the more sober St $ohn yetwithout de'iating from his line of thought. %he light from the lamp of "re illuminateshis soul and PubrC points out the 'ermin or animals that the soul is full of and needsto e>pel in order to reach *;uietude.*

Dhikr8withdrawal inward: is li(e a lamp that is lighted within a dar( house. . . .By its light, Gthe soulH understands that the house is "lled with impuritiesG/Hsuch as the impurity of the dog, of a panther, of a leopard, of an ass, of a bull,of an elephant, and of e'ery obectionable creature in e>istence 8chapter NA,p. N:.


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Knion with 0od is manifested for both St $ohn and the 3uslim illuminists or !shrC;=sby one further element/ the 'eils that co'er and separate the Di'inity from the

mystics soul are stripped away. &s both &s

n )alacios and . 5. %. 0airdner 8AA:point out, this symbol of the 'eil of the phenomenological and human whichseparates us from 0od is gi'en only s(etchy portrayal by the neoplatonists 8the)seudo2Dionysius, for e>ample, in The elestial -ierarchies: and such writers as

0arcilaso and Fray -uis de -en. But the 3uslims insistence on the symbol, and thesymbols widespread and elaborate employment in poems and treatises, allow us toassociate it here with !slam, especially because of the speci"c conte>t in which itappears/ as part of the most widespread symbol of spiritual illumination. &t least one!slamicist seems to consider it a uni;uely Su" metaphor/ *!n Su" parlance,phenomenal e>istence is concei'ed by a 'eil, which conceals the truth from mans'iew,* comments %. 5. eir 8>>>ii:, though we could not say with how muchawareness of the distant antecedents in &le>andria. For &le>andrian antecedentsthere are/ the symbol of the 'eil, which is admittedly ancient in !slam, appears in the*traditions* or *had=ths* as the famous formulation that follows/

&llah hath Se'enty %housand eils of -ight and Dar(ness/ were 5e to withdrawthe curtain, then would the splendours of 5is Face surely consume e'eryonewho apprehended 5im with his sight 80airdner AA:.

3ystics as di'erse as SemnCn=V, who sets the un'eiling of 0od at dwelling number @1of the ninth stage of the mystical path 8Ba(htiar 9E:, PubrC 8pp. T, E:, !bn !ra;=

8Smith, $u: ?ath:, &l2 5uw=r= 891:, !bn ?&C &llCh 8ikam,9T:, $Cm= 8Smith N:, !bn?&rab= 8T**9N, N1:, and &Jmad &l20haCl= 8T**1T@:6all employ the symbol, eachadding his own comple>ity to it. e are reminded by 3aria %eresa +ar'ae 8@N: that &

ammad &l20haCl=, is 'ery close tomad &l20haCl=s brother, the more famous 3uSt $ohn of the #ross/ 0od cleanses the soul *of worldly "lth and Gpulls bac(H the 'eilswhich hide 5im, so that 5e may be seen in the heart as though one were gaing upon5im with the eyes 8;td. in &sin, 0spiritualidad!!/N1N2N1E:. *Brea( through the cloth ofthis sweet encounter* says St $ohn in the *-i'ing Flame.* &nd in his commentary, hedescribes in detail, in a most Su"2li(e manner, what this *cloth* is/

%a(e away from before Gthe soulH some of the many 'eils and curtains that thesoul has before it, so that it may see what 5e loo(s li(e, and then there shinesthrough and is glimpsed, somewhat dar(ly 8because not all the 'eils are ta(enaway: that face of 5is that is "lled with grace 8A/@ &'9T:.

+ot only 'eils but curtainsthat pre'ent the souls perfect union with 0od/ St $ohnparallels the 3uslims 'ery closely/ in &rabic +i6/b is *'eil* or *curtain* 8)area 1*rabic#0nglish Dictionary1NE: and poets such as !bn al2FCriW allude to this lattermeaning/ *%hou shalt "nd all that appears to thee R . . . but in the 'eils of occultationwrapt/ hen he remo'es R the curtain, thou beholdest none but 5im* 8Smith $u:?ath1:. !n a more popular 'ersion, curtains and 'eils also separate 3uhammadfrom 0od in the legend of the mir>/68X!X, 1:.

%he parallels continue/ in the process of puri"cation that culminates in illumination,both St $ohn and the Su"s polish the mirror of their soul to the point where it is soburnished that it can reect the light of 0od/ *the mirror Gof theH heart has been sopolished with di'ers classes of morti"cation. . . whose eMect is the polishing thatmust be accomplished so that the forms of mystical realities can manifest themsel'eswith all their brightness in the heart.* %hese words are from &bL al23awChib al2

ShCdhal= of #airos 8abaq/t, SharCn=, !!, 7T:, but the image is repeated o'er and o'erby Lm=, !bn ?&IC &llCh, !bn ?&rab=, &l20haCl=, and e'en the ancient B=sICm= 8d.

@7A:, a(=m %irmidh= 8d. @9@:, and 5asan Bar= 8d. 7@:. St $ohn sounds li(e them all,and his soul, *through the brightness that comes supernaturally,* becomes a *brightmirror* 83!!/ A/A &'AN9:.


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!n another 'iew of the symbol, &l2Sha?rCn= e>plores the mysterious depths of the soulwhich is en(indled with lo'e/ it is subdi'ided into se'en concentric states, eachdeeper than the one before 8Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions17A:. St $ohn of the#ross echoes this "gure by declaring in his *-i'ing Flame* that his soul is concentric8!, 1:. %he )seudo2Dionysius had used such a "gure e'en earlier, but St $ohn and theSu"s coincide in the smaller details of the "gure. !n the glosses to the *Spiritual

#anticle,* St $ohn remar(s that there are precisely se'en of these degrees or stagesof the souls concentricity/

%his wine2cellar that here the soul spea(s of is the last and narrowest degreeof lo'e in which the soul can reside in this life and it is for that reason that itis called the inward wine#cellar,that is, the most inward. From which it followsthat there are others which are not so inward, which are the degrees of lo'efrom which one ascends unto this last, and we may say that these degrees orwine2cellars of lo'e are se'en Gin numberH 8@E/A &'7TT:.

hile for St %heresa, as we all (now, it is the interior castles of the soul that arese'en in number, for St $ohn of the #ross it is cellars, with the most inward ;uitespeci"cally a wine2cellar. ould his imagination ha'e been under the inuence ofsome recollection of the symbol of the ecstatic wine6which is also, apparently, Su"Q!n PubrCs fertile imagination, the concentricities of the soul ta(e the form of se'enwells which the interior soul, inamed with lo'e, must climb out of until it reaches theultimate light of truth. 5ere is the passage in which he describes this ascent/

%hou shouldst (now that e>istence is not limited to a single act. %here is noact of being Gor of e>istenceH that is not underlain by another act of being Gorof e>istenceH which is more important and more sublime than the precedingone, until we come to the di'ine Being. For each of these acts or le'els ofe>istence, which we see throughout the mystical path, there is a well. %heseacts of being or le'els of e>istence are se'en Gin numberH. . . . GOnceH thouhast ascended through the se'en wells of the di'ers categories of e>istence,behold, thou arri'est at the 5ea'en of the Deity and the )ower of 0od. . . and5is light is so bright that human spirits may only barely stand it, while yetthey become enamoured of it with mystical lo'e 8@/ 7:

%he soul as an interior well is not an image that is PubrCs alone, howe'er curious itmay seem to us. !t has a long 3uslim genealogy6we should recall, for e>ample,+am C=, a thirteenth2century Su" who also used it 8cf)#orbin, 2homme1NE21N7:.But few get as much mileage out of the simile as the late2)ersian treatise2writerPubrC does. !n one passage from his 9aw/2ih al#Aam/l wa#9aw/ti+ al#Aal/l 8chapter 17,p. @:, we come upon a 'ery interesting and highly signi"cant play on words with the&rabic root q#l#b#o( whose multiple meanings PubrC fully and e>plicitly e>ploits/qalaba8*to turn around, to transmute, to reect something, to be transformed, tochange*: qalb 8*transmutation*: qalb in its more usual sense of *essence, heart,center, middle* and, last, the 'ariant qal4b 8*well*: 8all, *rabic#0nglish Dictionary:.PubrC points out, then, for the illuminated heart of the mystic, the shiftingpossibilities/ it can reect 0od, it can become transmuted or transformed in 5im, itcan be the most profound essence and centre of the soul, and it can be 8at least

metaphorically: a well. %he wit or ingenuity of this master of style is doubly importantbecause it coincides in a surprisingly precise way with St $ohn of the #ross. For asthough he were aware of the possibilities of the &rabic root, in the *-i'ing Flame* St

$ohn also e;uates the deepest centre of his soul, which is able to reect 0od andtransform itself into 5im, with a well/ *O happy soul. . . which also art the well ofliving waters)* -i(e PubrC, St $ohn is insistent in his use of the image, repeating itmore than once and supporting it with the Biblical passage on $eremiahs *fountain ofli'ing waters* 8/72@ &'@7N $er /1:. PubrC had supported his own conceit withthe UurCnic passage on $oseph 81/1T219:. %here is another 'ery interesting, and


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rather strange, parallel/ in employing the image of the soul as a well or cistern in themidst of a process of illumination, both mystics6li(e so many pre'ious Su"s6lin(and intermingle the *li'ing waters of that spiritual well with the ames oftransformation in 0od.* PubrCs soul2as2a2well *se mJtamorphose en puits de lumiIre*8#orbin, Bhomme11:. !n St $ohn of the #ross, water and "re are e;uated to amiracle, one which is mirrored in the miraculous transformation of Bridegroom into

Bride/%hus these lamps of "re are li'ing waters of the spirit. . . . GFor althoughH theywere lamps of "re, they were also pure and limpid waters. . . . &nd thus,although it is "re, it is also water for this "re is "gured forth by the "re of thesacri"ce which $eremiah hid at the cistern, which when hidden was water, andwhen pulled from the well for the sacri"ce was "re 8 3arch 1, T2 /12:. . . called 7amesrather than water,saying ' lamps of :reC&ll that whichcan in that song be said, is less than that which is, because the transformationof the soul into 0od is ineMable 8,/@ &',p. @7N2@7E:.

&nother trope for the process of illumination that both St $ohn and the Su"s insist onis the metaphor of the sudden stro(e of lightning or lightning2bolt which indicates theabrupt and eeting manifestation of 0od. &lthough in this case the parallel seems;uite widespread 83ircea 4liade remar(s that *the rapidity of mystical illuminationhas been compared in many religions to lightning* GThe Two ) ) ) ,p. H:, among3uslims, including the alchemists 8cf)$ung 17:, it becomes an obligatory technicale;uation. !bn ?&rab= assures us of the stability of his image, in &rabic l/2i+,literally*lightning*/ *%he author of these poems always uses the term ?lightning to denote acentre of manifestation of the Di'ine 4ssence* 8T)*)*)9:. &gain, SemnCn= gi'es it aprecise numerical location along the mystical path/ stro(es of lightning occupynumber E9 of the ninth stage along the road 8Ba(htiar 9E:. 3any other 3uslimsemploy the term, but we shall only loo( closely at the case of &l20haCl= who, in his I/y/remar(s

G%heH lights of truth shall shine brightly in his heart. . . . !n the beginning theyshall be as eeting bolts of lightning, which ash and ash again and remain ashort while or a longer . . . and there shall be di'ers illuminations, or always

the same one 8in )area 9A:.!n words remar(ably resembling those of &l20haCl=, St $ohn of the #ross alsopresents the sudden ash of mystical e>perience under the metaphor of a ash oflightning/

&nd it is, sometimes, as though an e>traordinarily bright door had opened,and through it Gthe soulH should see Ga lightH li(e a ash of lightning, whenupon a dar( night things suddenly become bright and clear and one can seethem clearly and distinctly and then they are once again in dar(ness 83 !!/A/N &'AN9:.

&nd that is the "gure of the mystical stro(e of lightning. e will not insist o'ermuchon a similar image that St $ohn shares with the 3uslims6the *stro(e of dar(ness*8Dark 3ight !!/N/ &' p. N7:6because here the antecedent common to both

8possibly the )seudo2Dionysius: is ;uite clear. !t is, howe'er, useful to note that this*lightning2bolt of dar(ness* is part of a metaphysics of light and dar(ness which,while already ;uite comple> in the early Fathers of the #hurch, too( on une>pecteddimensions of complication and wit among the Su"s 8and especially )ersian Su"s:, as

%oshihi(o !utu has demonstrated in his essay *%he )arado> of -ight and Dar(ness in%he 0arden of 3ystery of Shabastari.* 4'en the architects of !slamic mos;ues playedwith the alternations of light and shadow, and we will disco'er in St $ohn of the #ross6at a much later date than the )seudo2Dionysius6that same play of chiaroscuro, forwhich St $ohn e'en in'ents a term/ *obumbraciones* or *hacimiento de sombra* 8


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/1 &' p. @7@:. St $ohnYs curious elaboration of this (aleidoscopic spiritualphenomenon would appear to locate him ;uite close to 3uslim mysticism and &rabicaesthetics, which, in patent de"ance of &ristotelian logic, delights in the impossibleunion of contraries/

But although these 'irtues and attributes of 0od may be lighted lamps thatare burning brightly, being so near the soul. . . they yet cannot fail to touch

Gthe soulH with their shadows, which are also brightly lighted and burningbright, in the "gure of the lamps which create them, and there these shadowsshall be splendours. 8/1A &'@7@:.

%he *-i'ing Flame of -o'e* 8which we might consider to include the glosses on thatpoem:, in which St $ohn describes the process of his "nal illumination, has alwaysbeen one of the poetYs most enigmatic wor(s, and one of those least addressed byliterary criticism. eference to 3uslim illuminationist literature, howe'er, helps usdecipher its mystery and recognise some of its possible sources6$u: sources towhich St $ohn of the #ross would appear, in one way or another, directly or indirectly,to ha'e had some access. hile we do not ;uestion the #hristian orthodo>y orintentions of St $ohn, we must recognise that e'en though he was an undeniable childof the est, in paralleling the Su"s so closely, and e'en in so fre;uently realigninghis Biblical citations and *supports* with the a>is of the technical Symbolism of !slam,he also was, in more than one sense, a cultural child of the 4ast. Or better, a child ofgenius of that Spain of three bloodlines that &mJrico #astro e>plored6the poet singshis #hristian sentiments with 3uslim metaphors. &nd his *-i'ing Flame of -o'e,* anun;uestionably orthodo> yet culturally hybrid poem, would appear to celebrate themoradaor *dwelling* of illuminati'e union from the point of 'iew of an ishr/q4 or3uslim !lluminationists. Or further yet/ from the point of 'iew of a 'ery eruditeishr/q4,well 'ersed in the matter and Symbolism of !llumination.

(d) Water, or the inner spring or ountain o mystical lie.

Zet this *initiate* of !slamic symbolism that St $ohn of the #ross would appear to ha'ebeen holds yet further surprises for us. &nother of his fa'ourite symbols is water asthe inner spring or fountain of the soul, a symbol he incorporates into his poetry in

stana 1 of the *Spiritual #anticle* 8*

Oh cristalina fuente, R si en esos tussemblantes plateados, R formases de repente R los oos deseados, R ;ue tengo en mis

entraas dibuados*: and in the poem titled *#antar de la alma ;ue se huelga deconocer a Dios por fe,* which begins *Uue bien sJ yo la fonte que mana y corre Raun;ue es de noche.* %he uni'ersality of water as a spiritual metaphor is clear, fromthe Bible 8$ohn A/1A: to alchemical terminology 8$ung 1TA:, as is the spring orfountain, the *immemorial symbol of eternal life* as 3aria osa -ida calls it. !ne>ploring the particular modalities that the symbol assumes in St $ohn of the #ross,once again we "nd traits that would appear to be clearly 3uslim. Some of them ha'e

already been pointed out by &sn )alacios/ both St $ohn and St %eresa, for instance,employ the !slamic 8and especially ShCdhilite: image of diligent and laborious prayeror meditation seen in terms of the arduous transport of spiritual water throughchannels and a;ueducts, an eMort that contrasts with the spontaneity of the

autonomous bubbling2forth of the spring of a higher degree of contemplation/ *GhenitH gi'es itself to prayer, the soul is now li(e one to whom water has been brought, sothat he drin(s peacefully, without labour, and is no longer forced to draw Gthe waterHthrough the a;ueducts 8also/ ?the buc(ets of a water wheel: of past meditations andforms and "gures,* as St $ohn said in The *scent 8!!/ 1A/ &'A1:. 8%his is 'erysimilar to St %eresas water2"gure in the*utobiography8X!: and the Interior astle8!//:.

%he symbol of the spring or fountain in St $ohn of the #ross has been the obect ofnumerous critical studies, though critics ha'e had di[culty tracing its sources. Da'id


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ubio does not thin( the sources are Biblical/

+one of the NE metaphors of the *spring* or *fountain* of the ulgate, andnone of the numerous metaphors of the same obect in estern mysticismcan in any way be tied to the concept of the *spring* or *fountain* in St $ohn ofthe #ross 81@:.

-udwig )fandl associates St $ohns use of the spring or fountain with the spring *della

prou'a dei leali amanti* of the chi'alric romance ?lati)81T@:. Dmaso &lonso, on theother hand, reects, for reasons mainly bibliographical in nature, any possibleinuence by the aballero ?latir and fa'ors instead 0arcilasos 4clogue !! astransmitted through the *di'ini"cation* of Sebasti

n de #rdoba. 3ar

a osa -idas

re'iew of &lonsos boo( minimies the importance of Sebasti

n de #rdoba andemphasies instead St $ohns close similarity to the spring of the ?latir8despite theproblematic nature of its possible inuence: and the spring of )rimalen. -ida ta(es anessential element of the symbol to be the fact that St $ohns spring or fountainreects anothers face, precisely as it does in these chi'alric romances, 0arcilasos4clogue !, Sannaaros*rcadia,and e'en an epigram by )aulo el Silenciario.

But without reecting these possible 0reco2-atin and 4uropean antecedents 8which

might to some degree ha'e left their mar( on St $ohn:, we must insist that they donot entirely clear up the problem of St $ohns particular spring. Sebasti

n de #rdobadoes ta(e 0arcilasos poem and recast it 8 la divine,so that the spring ta(es on a*religious* or allegorical cast, but he does not gi'e it the details that would bring itinto congruence with the symbol as found in St $ohn. &lthough other authors80arcilaso himself, for instance: are closer in some essential aspects of the spring8the fact that it reects anothers face:, their images lac( the mystical dimension thatis so ob'ious in St $ohn of the #ross. &nd besides6St $ohns spring reects the eyesof the Bridegroom, not his face.

%he mystical literature of !slam will not sol'e all the thorny problems of St $ohnsspring or fountain, but it will pro'ide some answers that ! belie'e to be fundamental.First of all, the spring in !slamic literature is concei'ed of from the beginning 8 ladivine)amon -ull, so clearly grounded in things &rabic, spea(s of a crystalline mirrorthat reects the degree of contemplation which the soul has of 0od 8cf)5atfeld: andin !bn ?&rab=s 9ut.+/t8!!, AA7: the spring is a mirage 8sar/b: that the thirsty mysticthin(s he sees but, realiing his error, disco'ers instead to be 0od and himself 8cf)&s

n, Islam cristiani1adoA97:. e should recall that the *semblantes plateados* or*sil'ery semblances Gor mienH* of the spring reect the eyes which St $ohnR thefemale narratorR the Bride has *engra'ed Gor drawnH within GhisRherH entrails.* %hat is/the eyes reect himRherself and 0odR the Bridegroom.

-et us pause for a moment to loo( at the poem *UuJ bien sJ yo la fonte. . . ,* whichwas composed in prison in %oledo ca. 1N7721N7@ and is one of the most shatteringlybeautiful poems of St $ohnYs oeuvre)!n this poem, the poet e>plains his *fonte* orfountain to the reader, and when we compare these details with Ba(htiarscommentary on the @ook of ertaintywe see that St $ohn of the #ross and the

anonymous Su" author coincide 'irtually phrase for phrase. Below, we oMer a side2by2side reading of the two "gures/

Ba(htiar/ St $ohn of the #ross/

%he mystic enters the0arden of the Spiritand "nds a fountain,water which gushesforth. . . G*owing* in

*Fonte ;ue mana ycorre*/ *fount whichissues forth andows.* . . .


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the @ook of ertaintyH. . . .

G%heH fountain is theFountain of Pnowledge.. .

*UuJ bien sJ yo,* *howwell ! (now,* is thepoets constant refrain.

hich is illuminated bythe Spirit. !t is thecontemplati'e %ruth of#ertainty, the(nowledge of !llumination, . . .

St $ohn said of hisfountain or spring,which is also curiously*lighted,* that *itsbrightness is ne'erdimmed, and ! (nowthat all light from it iscome.*

Pnowledge of theOneness of all Di'ineUualities. . . .

St $ohn insists onOneness, although herefers to the unity thatunderlies the mysteryof the %rinity/ *ell !(now that three in onesingle li'ing water Rli'e, and one from theother is deri'ed.*

%he Fountain ofPnowledge appearsli(e 'eils of light, notdar(ness, behind eachof which shines the-ight of 4ssence !tself8Ba(htiar 7:.

!n the *sil'erysemblances* of thespring in the *Spiritual#anticle,* which St $ohnunderstands as *faith,*one may glimpse 0od*e'en through 'eils*

*beneath this faith liesthe substance of faith,stripped of the 'eil ofthis sil'er. . . . So thatfaith is gi'en us and

oins us to 0od 5imself,but co'ered with asil'ering of faith* 8&'EN7:.

*&lthough it is night,* St $ohn insists upon the mystical certainty that he feels in thepresence of this spring or fountain. 5e repeats the 'erb to knowno fewer than ele'entimes in the poem, and almost in'ariably emphatically/ *;uJ bien sJ yo,* *how well !

myself do (now.* *#ertainty,* indeed, is the principal semantic referent of the Su"symbol of the spring or fountain. &l20haCl=, to ta(e ust one e>ample, says80airdner, 3iche for ights77: in a commentary on SLra 1/19 of the UurCn, *thewater here is (nowledge.* +Lr= of Baghdad had the same insight as early as the ninthcentury/ in %reatise !! of his Maq/m/t al =ul.b 81N:, in which he gi'es longdescriptions of the mystical water of the soul, he declares that the water that ows inthe gnostics heart implies (nowledge 8>ul.m: of the secrets of an eternal 0od 8andhere we should recall St $ohn/ *that eternal fount is hidden* G&'9TH:. For +Lr= thedi'ine water symbolises not only (nowledge of 0od, but the certainty of that


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(nowledge.

But St $ohn adds yet another element to that certainty/ *;uJ bien s+yo por fela fontefrida* 8&'91:. %he *crystalline spring* of the *Spiritual #anticle* thus signi"es faithas well, as the poet e>plains in the glosses to the poem 8@1/ &'EN7:. %hat mostdelicate conunction of faith and certainty occurs also among the Su"s. %he author ofthe @ook of ertaintydescribes the *Fountain of the -ore of #ertainty* in precisely

those terms/ *%his degree of certainty being none other than faith 8 4m/n:* 81AN:.&nother passage states that in Su"sm the second degree of faith is the *4ye of#ertainty* 8>aynu2l#>yaq4n: 81:. %his terminology might seem 'ery abstruse andstrange, and yet we see that it ta(es us closer to that comple> spring or fountain ofSt $ohn of the #ross than do the 4uropean sources ;uoted by critics to date..

ithin the fountain of the *Spiritual #anticle* 8and this no doubt reinforces in some

critics mind the association with 0arcilasos 4clogue !!/ *

Sabes ;ue me ;uitaste,fuente clara R los oos de la caraQ*/ *Do you (now that you ha'e ta(en from me, brightspringR the eyes of my faceQ*:, St $ohn sees mirrored *the desired eyes* of theBridegroom6curiously, mysteriously, the eyes, not the face. !n the *Spiritual#anticle* this lo'ely liraon the spring immediately precedes the moment at whichthe lo'ers are oined. %he same thing occurs in PubrC/ *le double cercle des deu>

yeu>* appears *au stade "nal de pIlerinage mysti;ue* 8#orbin, 2homme 17:. &sShabastar= reminds us, these eyes can wound the mystic who is about to enterabsolute union/ *the eye has no power to stand the daling light of the sun. !t canonly see the sun as reected in the water* 8in !utsu, 9@:. !t is perhaps for thatreason that St $ohn as(s "rst to contemplate those allegorical eyes in his *crystallinespring*6only thus, and echoing his Su" colleagues in the mystical e>perience, can hebear the e>perience. !n the light of these close parallels, then, the stanas mysterywould appear to be gradually coming clear. hen in the ne>t stana the poets soul*ies oM* toward 0od, it *can hardly recei'e 5im without losing its life* 8@1/1 &'EET: and the poetR Bride e>claims/ *%urn them Gthe eyesH away, -o'er* 5ow close St

$ohn of the #ross is to !bn ?&rab=, who in his comment on the enigmatic line from theTar6um/n, *She (ills with her glances,* e>plains that the line refers *to the station ofpassing away in contemplation* 8fan/ :2l#mush/hadah:.

%he unbearable pain of ecstasy pre"gured in a pair of di'ine eyes whose glance canhardly be borne brings St $ohn yet once again into parallel with his religiouscounterparts in the 4ast. Both cases as( for the eyes of 0od in order to be able to see0od/ *hen you loo(ed at meR Zour grace in me your eyes impressed R . . . R and atthat, my own eyes R became worthy of adoring what they saw in you* 8 &' E@:,e>claims St $ohn, echoing so many 3uslims such as !bn ?&rab=/ *hen my -o'erappears, what eye shall ! loo( upon him withQ ith his, not my own, because no onesees him sa'e 5imself alone* 8in +icholson 19@:.

But there is a powerful reason for the recurrence of the "gure of the other personseyes reected in a spring, that trope which mar(s for Su"s the beginning of thealchemy of Knion through -o'e. %he un;uestionable reason for the fact that we "ndin the mystical literature of !slam 8and not of 4urope: so many e>amples in which atthe precise moment of mystical transformation the fount of ultimate spiritual

(nowledge reects a pair of mysterious eyes, is that in &rabic the word >ayn has thesimultaneous meanings *fountain* or *spring,* *eye,* *identity* 8or *substance* or*indi'iduality*: and *the same.* 8%here are other meanings as well.: &ll the Su"sseem to ha'e done is translate the 'arious simultaneoussemantic meanings of thethree2letter word2root into linearpoetry, in a way that is e>traordinarily profound inits mystical implications and at the same time constant throughout &rabiccontemplati'e literature. hat is astonishing is that St $ohn of the #ross shouldparallel the Su" masters so closely6indeed, perfectly. &lthough practitioners of thedolce stil nuovosuch as )etrarch and &chilini had suggested that the intermingling of


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that will help us understand the poets most intimate mystical thoughts and feelings.&t the point of mystical union, when the poems symbolic pool is re'ealed to be thelocus of oneness between Bride and Bridegroom, and thus the locus of di'inemanifestation, the Bride who at the beginning of the poem had sought herBridegroom through a hay landscape that her swift foot really barely trod 8so little*realied* was the scene:, now suddenly disco'ers that the Bridegroom is not inthat

landscape, but rather isit/ the mountains, 'alleys, ri'ers, breees. &nd une>pectedlythe anguished ;uestion *hereQ* with which the poem had begun 8*here ha'e youhidden, Belo'ed, and left me with my moanQ*: begins to be answered with a myriadof spaces in glorious, (aleidoscopic succession. %he Bridegroom, curiously, does notha'e a face, as those traditional lo'ers of 4uropean lo'e poetry would ha'e had 8weshould recall )etrarch and onsard:, but is concei'ed rather in the metaphoric termsof a 'ertiginous cascade of spaces and e'en une>pected times and situations 8night,music, solitude, a feast or dinner: which suggest the collapsing of the contrariesheight and depth, sound and silence, the solid and the ethereal.

!n the poems ecstatic union of Bride and Bridegroom, e'erything seems to merge/

*3i &mado las montaas R los 'alles solitarios nemorosos R las *. . . .nsulas e>traas%he metaphoriation by means of which the Bridegroom has been lin(ed6in fact'erblessly e;uated6with those spaces is completely un(nown in the 4uropean poetry

of the enaissance indeed, so strange is this mode of imaging that the Spanish critic#arlos Bousoo, in a most fortunate essay for our topic here, calls it *'isionary* and*contemporary.* !n the metaphor, what is associati'ely brought together is thesensations or impressions that are produced by the two lin(ed elements/ in theBrides perception, St $ohn tells us in his glosses, the Bridegroom is *li(e* themountains because the impression produced by the mountains 8height, maesty,pleasant fragrance: is similar to the impression produced by the Bridegroom/ *%hemountains are lofty, abundant, broad, and lo'ely, "lled with owers and scents.

%hese mountains are my Belo'ed for me* 8@1A21N/7 &'EEN:. -i(ewise, the 'alleysare associated with the sensations of delight, coolness, and rest the *strange isles,*with the notion of mystery the sounding ri'ers, with the sensation of being washedo'er by them and hearing that profound roar that blots out all e>ternal sound and soon, through the celebratory stanas.

%hese e;uations are achie'ed not by means of parallel elements that arerecogniable by logic, but rather through non2rational, non2logical associations, ustas in such Semitic poems as the Song of Songs and such drun(2with2lo'e Su" te>ts as!bn ?&rab=s Tar6um/n al#*shw/q 8The Interpreter of Desires: or !bn al2FCriWs5hamriyyah8ine Song:.

&nd St $ohn the *'isionary* re'eals e'en further mystical e;uations. %he Bride as(edat the beginning of the poem about where6in what space6the Bridegroom hadhidden himself from her. +ow she has disco'ered that 5e is those spaces that shewandered through in search of 5im, and disco'ers also that this une>pected identityof her Belo'eds is completed6by a true prodigy of lo'e and wondrous literary insight6in her realisationof this fact/ in a word, in her herself. *%hese mountains aremyBelo'ed for me,* the poet2commentator insists in the glosses that are meant to

clarify the poems obscurities/ *&ll these things 8mountains, ri'ers, 'alleys: is herBelo'ed in himRitself and is so for her* 8@1A21N/N &'EEA, emphasis ours:. %he actof intuition is indeed wondrous/ in the high intermingling of lo'e, 0od hastransformed her into 5imself, yet it is she who in employing the metaphorical mirrorgi'es the Bridegroom a new identity/ 5e is that whole myriad of mar'ellous spacesand music and nights and times because 5e is so in her realisation or perception of5im she contains, so to spea(, within herself all that delicious, e>traordinarily freeand changing identity. %imes and spaces are not simply cancelled or collapsed, asthey are in all ecstatic moments, but con'erge in the uni"ed identity of the two


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-o'ers. %he once2perple>ed Bride at last (nows where her Bridegroom had hidden5imself. %he answer is repeated yet again, o'erwhelming in its pure simplicity/ *!nme.* &nd the see(ing, agonising Bride of the *Spiritual #anticle* realises that she, li(e

?&

Crs thirty birds that so assiduously sought the S=murg throughout the world, washerself the S=murg that she had sought through the sheepfolds, through the hillside,and through the woods and undergrowth that are ourneyed through in the "rst

stanas of the poem. She could not "nd her Belo'ed there because she was see(ing5im where she would ne'er "nd him/ outside herself.

Of course 0od is, or contains within 5imself, all of these elements with which theBride identi"es 5im6mountains, 'alleys, ri'ers. !n this transformati'e state the soulunderstands the secret concatenation of causes that articulate the harmony of theKni'erse6an understanding that far transcends simple pantheism, into which St $ohnof the #ross ne'er falls. 0od transforms the soul into 5is 'irtues and attributes. 5e is6or manifests65is attributes in the soul, which acts as a mirror of 5im. &lthough thepoems protagonist saw her Belo'ed reected in the pool or mirror of herself, now theBelo'ed is reected in the pool or mirror of the soul, which is also 5im/ both are themirror of the other, and reect bac( and forth itsRtheir ipsiety in an unendingsuccession of unendingly self2reecting mirrors, as though one were set before theother. Or to say this in another way/ 0od obser'es 5imself in 5is Bride, while she

contemplates 5im in herself because she is, or perfectly reects, all thesesimultaneous transformations of ineMable attributes that come together in her ownsubstance. !t is no coincidence, gi'en what we ha'e been discussing thus far, thatthe consummation of the union which the *Spiritual #anticle* celebrates began in ametaphorical mirror6the water of the spring. 0od shall be reected in the mirror ofthe soul as though in pure translucid water which at this moment of supremeidenti"cation is able to reect 5im in 5is glory.

%his mirror is a well polished one/ St $ohn of the #ross 8and St %eresa, who used thetrope in her own wor(: adopted an ancient leit#motifwhich the Su"s of the 3iddle&ges had been using and re"ning for centuries. %he soul, loosed of its bonds andgi'en up wholly to 0od, is, metaphorically, a spotless mirror which can reect the0odhead. 5enri #orbin saw this in the case of !bn ?&rab=, who felt that he (new 0od inthe e>act proportion to which the +ames and &ttributes of 0od had their epiphany in

him/ *Dieu se dJcrit

nous2m\mes par nous2m\mes* *par cette sympatheiasactualise laspiration recipro;ue fondJe en la communautJ de leur essence*8#orbin, Imagination cr+atrice9N, @@:. %he soul, whose powers are "lled only with thein"nite, becomes, as we ha'e seen, a polished mirror, transparent water, in order tobe able to reect, as though in a glowing (aleidoscope, all these di'ine attributes.

%he swift succession of attributes in this wonderfully pure mirror of the soul is onlyapparent, howe'er, since in 0od, free of time and space, the manifestation occurssimultaneously and instantaneously.

St $ohn of the #ross ma(es clear that this spring or fount in which the union begins tobe celebrated is *the heart, GwhichH here signi"es the soul* 8*,1/7 &',p. EN@:. !nestern mysticism this trope of a heart as the symbolic 'essel or receptacle ofcrystalline waters that reect the changing and 'isionary images of the di'ine

manifestations within the soul, is a strange one. But once again, the Su"s come tothe aid of our understanding of the apparently enigmatic symbols of St $ohn of the#ross. !bn ?&rab= would ha'e 'ery profoundly understood, and would ha'e seconded,what St $ohn wants to say at this point in the poem, for he (new a great deal aboutthis inner heart that was also the mirror of changing images/ in &rabic, the word qalb,as we ha'e noted, simultaneously means *heart* and *perpetual, constant change,*among other things. &s one might e>pect, 3uslim mystics too( full ad'antage of thiscoincidence in the multi'alent roots of &rabic, and put them to wor( in their poetry.

%hus, in the most famous and most comple> lines of his Tar6um/n al#*shw/q, !bn


15/24

?&rab= says the following/

3y heart is capable of any form/ it is a pasture for gaelles and acon'ent for #hristian mon(s,&nd the idols temple and the pilgrims Pa?abah and the tablets of the

%orah and the boo( of the UurCn.! follow the religion of lo'e/ where so e'er the camels of lo'e go, that is

my religion and my faith.!t is 3ichael Sells who has seen, with e>traordinarily (een sight, that !bn ?&rab=s*drun(en* lines spea( not simply 8as many &rabists ha'e it: of tolerance for allre'ealed religions6for 0od may be found in all of them6but also, and much moreprofoundly, of the high dwelling2place of the ecstatic heart that is recepti'e of anyform 8*0arden &mong the Flames* 11, n. 7:. Or, to say it another way, recepti'e ofany di'ine manifestation that may occur in it. %hese are Sells words/

%he heart that is recepti'e of e'ery form is in a state of perpetualtransformation 8taqallub,a play on the two meanings of the root qlb,heartand change:. %he heart moulds itself to, recei'es, and becomes each form ofthe perpetually changing forms in which the %ruth re'eals itself to itself. . . .G%oH achie'e a heart that is recepti'e of e'ery form re;uires a continual

process of eMacement of the indi'idual self in the uni'ersal 89:.!bn ?&rab= is ;uite conscious of these truths, since in the original &rabic of his poem,the line *my heart is capable Gor has become the 'esselH of any form,* the poet isplaying with the possibilities of the word qalb/ his heart 8i)e),the mirror of his soul: isin a state of perpetual transformation as it *successi'ely* reects the manifestations

of 0od/ *For !bn ?&rab=, al#aqq8the %ruth: manifests itself to itself through e'ery formor image but is con"ned to none. %he forms of manifestation are constantlychanging* 89T291:. St $ohn of the #ross tells us e>actly the same thing when hema(es e>plicit that the (aleidoscopic stanas of the *Spiritual #anticle* 8*3y Belo'ed,the mountains. . .*: represent the continual manifestation of 0od in the mirror of thesoul. %his heart2mirror should ob'iously be capable of reecting any di'ine form,without ">ing any one within itself, since 8and we ;uote St $ohn himself here: *note'en the angels can see enough of it, nor e'er will.* !t always *brings newness tothem, and always they mar'el more* 8@, 1A21N/@:. %hus the soul of the truecontemplati'e, as Sells once more notes, *is not so much an entity or obect as ane'ent, the process of perspecti'e shift, of fan/2,the polishing of the di'ine mirror*899:. %here is, then, no reason to seie upon any one of these states ormanifestations, e'en the highest of them, because, as St $ohn tells us, only 0od can"nally (now them truly and in"nitely.

! belie'e that this is the reason the poet la'ished such indeterminate oy on his poetic(aleidoscope/ 0od is spaces, times, music, sounding solitude, and not simply one ofthese things, but all, and in"nite numbers more, because surely from St $ohnsfe'erish cataloguing celebration we can infer that the oy of the reception of theseattributes ne'er ends. Once again 3ichael Sells/ *From the di'ine perspecti'e theeternal manifestation always has occurred and always is occurring. From the human

perspecti'e it is eternal but also a moment in time, an eternal moment that cannotbe held on to but must be continually re2enacted* 81:. !t would appear that withthese words Sells is e>plaining not only the Tar6um/ns stanas of transformati'eunion, but those of the *Spiritual #anticle* as well, and for good reason it wouldappear so/ both mystics ha'e a heart6a qalb6which is colourless and of utter purity,li(e water, and endowed, for that 'ery reason, with a protean ability to reect in its*sil'ery mien,* as in an unending mirror, the continuous manifestations which theDeity ma(es of its own 4ssence to !tself in the fortunate soul that is able to assumeany form.


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() The ascent o the mount.

One of St $ohns most famous6if not most fully elaborated6symbols is the ascent ofthe mount 83ount #armel in his case:, which signi"es the souls ascent to themystical pea(. Few symbols are as *$ungian* as the cosmic mountain whose echoesre'erberate in St $ohn/ from the iggurats of 3esopotamia to the temple of Borobudurin $a'a 84liade, ?atterns7E:, what we ha'e is a symbolic architecture that ma(es

possible a ritual and yet concrete ascent of profound spiritual signi"cance. &s onemight e>pect, mystical literature has adopted this symbolic motif, which can bedocumented o'er and o'er in 4uropean literature/ in the 3eunfelsenbuch 8@ook ofthe 3ine Rocks: of the fourteenth2century 0erman mystic ulman 3erwin in $ean0erson in Diego de 4stellas Meditaciones del amor de Dios in the Blessed +icholasFactor in Francisco de Osunas Tercer abecedario espiritual8*%hird Spiritual )rimer*:and, abo'e all, in the case of Bernardino de -aredo, whose $ubida del Monte $in8*scent of Mount Eion: would seem to ser'e as a prelude to the*scent of St $ohn ofthe #ross 8cf)Santiago Barroso:.

!t should come as no surprise that for se'eral reasons, the symbol also recei'esconsiderable attention in 3uslim mysticism. %he mountain at whose summit themystic struggles to arri'e is part of a 'isionary geography of impossible but highly

articulated maps that 5enri #orbin has discussed in profound detail/ in Suhraward=sR+cit de l2+(il,for e>ample, the *orientation est celle dune gJographie 'isionairesorientant sur le ?climat de lme" (Corbin, Lhomme70). From the Libro de la escala de

Mahoma (Book of Muhammads Stairway) (cf. Muoz Sendino, 225-226) to Ibn r!b=sTar6um/n,we "nd the theoretical elaboration of the spiritual mountain. PLbra insisteda great deal on it, and ga'e it an often2employed technical name/ it was themountain 5/f)

e turn our attention to this uni'ersal symbol in order to note that in some details ofhis own particular use of it, St $ohn of the #ross reminds us once again of his Su"predecessors. Bernardino de -aredos spiritual*scentis to 3ount


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%hat didactic method which is ta(en to be an inno'ation introduced Gby -ullH and bywhich e'erything is 'ulgarised . . . with graphic representations, schemata,concentric circles. . . , s;uares, so that it might enter through the eyes into theintelligence of the masses, was a method peculiar to and characteristic of the 3uslimSu"s contemporaneous with -ull 817T2171:.

!f we compare the two traditions, we "nd that it is true that -ull, who did not read

-atin and who wrote in &rabic, seems to deri'e more from the *Su" hermits* hedirectly ;uotes in his ibre d2amic e amatthan from the 4uropean emblemists thatFrances Zates has studied. Ba(htiar reproduces a concrete e>ample of that long3uslim tradition, a )ersian rendering of the cosmic mountain 5/fthat forms part of amanuscript containing an anthology of fourteenth2century )ersian poems. 8See Fig.1.: &lthough it is polychrome, and much more highly decorated than the famousillustration of the &scent of 3ount #armel that was drawn "rst by St $ohn 8&'p. E:and then re2elaborated more *artistically* by his followers 8see Figs. ^ :, thefundamental idea shared by the two illustrations is not hard to see. !n the )ersiancase, the rendering, co'ered with e>planations 8especially in the top part of thedrawing:, ser'es as illustration for mystical poems dealing with the ascent of thespiritual mountain. !s this lin(ing of a graphic representation, a poem, and a prosegloss a distant antecedent of St $ohns procedure as he spea(s of his own mystical

ascentQ Both St $ohn of the #ross and the Su"s employ this tripartite techni;ue. &ndsome details of the 3uslims symbolic mountain are ;uite similar to St $ohns. FrithofSchuon describes the Su"s ascent to his own soul in these terms/

hat separates man from di'ine eality is the slightest of barriers. 0od is in"nitelyclose to man, but man is in"nitely far from 0od. %he barrier, for man, is amountain. . . which he must remo'e with his own hand. 5e digs away the earth, butin 'ain, the mountain remains man goes on digging in the +ame of 0od. &nd themountain 'anishes. !t was ne'er there 8$tations of Wisdom,in Ba(htiar N7:.

St $ohn of the #ross says of the summit of his mountain that *in this place there is nolonger any path,* and he disco'ers that there ne'er was. !n the depths of his soul is0od/ St $ohn has performed a circular and non2e>istent ourney/ *from 0od to 0od.*

But the path is no less arduous for all that. Ba(htiar insists/ *One needs a guide to

climb/ one can climb a mountain by many paths, but one needs to follow one madeby e>perienced people* 8@:. e should recall St $ohns obsession with the spiritualteacher, who should be that person that is right for each soul6an obsession that &s

n traced to the 3uslims. e should also note that they are pluralpaths, sometwisting and therefore leading nowhere/ these also appear in St $ohns schema, as wesee in the drawing. Ba(htiar continues/ *%he higher one mo'es spiritually, the more'ision one gains. . . . GOneH passes from form to formlessness* 8@:. &l20haCl=insists upon the same process/ *%he fourth stage is to gae at the union of an all2comprehensi'e, all2absorbing One, losing sight e'er of the duality of ones own self.

%his is the highest stage* 8+awab &li 1TA:. Because of his insistence on this nothingwhich is the pathway to arri'e at the allat the summit of the mountain, St $ohn onceagain shows himself to be a brother of the mystics of the 4ast/ *to come to be all Rwish not to be something in nothing,* says the poem that accompanies the drawing.

St $ohn also sees annihilation 8that oft2mentioned fan/of the Su"s: as necessary inthe process of ascent/ *one single thing is needed which is to (now how to trulynegate oneself . . . and annihilate oneself in all* 83!!!/ 1E/1 &'A9N:.

%he ascent to the mountain of ones own soul, which is achie'ed by self2annihilation,is, we must ac(nowledge, a uni'ersal motif of mysticism, and yet St $ohn of the #rossand the Su"s 8and e'en Bernardino de -aredo: precisely parallel one another in theirmetaphorical ascent of the Sinai of the soul, ta(ing their direction in this singularad'enture from mystical *maps.*


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(g) The solitary #ird.

St $ohn of the #ross concei'es the soul as a *solitary bird* 8much li(e the *passersolitarius* of Da'ids )salm 1T/7 in ulgate 1T1/@:, but he endows it with enigmaticproperties that transform it into a symbol which has ba_ed critics such as Fr. 4ulogio)acho because of its total lac( of estern antecedents. &nd indeed such antecedentsare 'irtually impossible to disco'er in 4urope. &uthors who in one way or another use

the symbol of the soul as a bird 8which is, of course, a trope so long2used that it hasbeen documented e'en in ancient 4gypt:6St Bona'enture, St Bernard, 5ugh of St2ictor, amon -ull, the blessed Oroco, -aredo, and e'en such anonymous medie'alte>ts as the )ortuguese @ook of the @irdsand the*ncren Riwle8The 3un2s Rule:, byan un(nown 4nglish anchorite of the thirteenth century6are not really 'ery helpfulwhen we attempt to penetrate the trope as presented by St $ohn of the #ross. +or arewe particularly enlightened in this regard by such studies on the subect of literary

birds as that by 3ara osa -ida/ the nightingale and the swallow of theenaissance, with their clear 0reco2-atin lineage, ma(e St $ohns solitary bird all themore mysterious and singular.

&ll St $ohn tells us of this mysterious bird is contained in two brief and almostidentical portraits, one in the Dichos de lu1 y *mor81T, &'9E7: and the other in the

glosses to the *Spiritual #anticle* 8@1N/ &'E7T:. %he Treatise on the ?ropertiesof the $olitary @ird,which would ha'e been so illuminating, is so far lost. e will,nonetheless, ma(e an attempt to throw some light on St $ohns schematic bird of thesoul. Once again, the most fertile "elds in which to search seem to be 4astern andnot estern. 3uslims, li(e #hristians, ha'e for centuries employed the symbol, whichwe clearly see to ha'e mystical connotations in the UurCn, where Solomon e>claims/*O men, we ha'e been taught the speech of birds, and are endued with e'erything.

%his is indeed a clear boon from Fod)* 87/1E: -ater Su"s such as PubrC, adapting the'erse, e>claimed/

8*praise to 0od, ho has gi'en us the language of the birds*:. %his is *thelanguage of self GwhichH contains (nowledge of the higher state of being*8Ba(htiar , 7:.

%hroughout the 3iddle &ges, 3uslim authors6SanCi, ?&IICr, BCya=d, al2B=sICm=6allproduced treatises on the mystical bird. )articularly important are those that

Suhraward=, &'icenna, and &l20haCl= each composed under the title Risal/t al#air,orthe Treatise upon the @ird,although, as Seyyed 5ossein +asr notes 8N1:, Suhraward='irtually translated into )ersian the &rabic treatise written by &'icenna.

%o decipher or put into perspecti'e the mysteries of the *properties* of St $ohn of the#rosss particular bird, let us loo( for a moment at some of St $ohns parallels withthese Su"s. St $ohn closely echoes the )ersian &l2B=sICm= 8d. @77:, who describedhimself as *a bird whose body was of Oneness,* and who ies *in singularity* G8&ttar,Muslim) ) ) ,n.p.:HH St $ohns bird is *solitary* and will not suMer *the company ofanother creature* 8Dichos 1T &' 9E7:. %he wings of al2B=sICm=s bird are *ofeternity* 8Schimmel, Mystical DimensionsA9: Lm=s symbolic bird ies far awayfrom all things material and perishable 8+icholson @E: St $ohns *shall rise abo'e all

things transitory* 8Dichos 1T:. &l2B=sICm=s bird raises its head toward the -ordGG8&ttar, ibid):HH St $ohns *puts its bea( into the air of the 5oly Spirit* 8Dichos1T:.allC e>claims, *! y with my wings to my Belo'ed* 8aw/sinA: in St $ohns ight,*the spirit. . . sets itself in highest contemplation* 8&'E7T:. &nd both "nally ac;uire a(nowledge that transcends all reason allCs soul, li(e that metaphorical bird, *fellinto the sea of understanding and was drowned* 8A:, while St $ohns, because it is abird on the rooftop, as in )salm 1T/7, rises so high that it *remains as thoughignorant of all things, for it (nows 0od only, without (nowing how* 8*scent!!/ 1N/11&'AA:.


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)erhaps the most interesting parallel is between St $ohn of the #ross and thecontemplati'e bird of Suhraward=. %here is no doubt that it is the "fth ;uality orproperty of St $ohns solitary bird 8the fourth property in the Dichos: that is mostproblematic/ the bird *has no one color* 8Dichos1T &'9E7:. St $ohn e>plains thisby saying that *thus is the spirit perfect 8&'E7T:. . . which has no speci"c ;uality inany thing* 8&'9E7:. %his is a curious image, a bird of no colour. %o our surprise,

though, Suhraward= had attributed this same property6in identical words6to his ownbird, four hundred years before St $ohn of the #ross/ *&ll colours are in him but he iscolourless* 8Three Treatises9:. %he congruence here is so perfect and so curiousthat it will be worth our while to ;uote the te>t in its )ersian original/

`````````8)ersian 'erse:

!n both cases, the absence of colour implies e>actly the same thing/ the letting2go ofall things material, the absence of material things in the soul. %his is a mostremar(able parallel. e should recall, howe'er, that this image of the spirit as acolourless entity or process is far from foreign to !slamic mystics. Seyyed 5ossein+asr, one of the worlds foremost scholars of !slamic mysticism in )ersian, tells us

that ?&IICr?s famous ManGiq al#airalso ma(es indirect allusion to this colourlessness inthe bird (nown as the Simurg. hen the thirty birds6each of a diMerent colour6

disco'er that they themsel'es are the S=murg, the beautiful rainbow of their di'ersecolours must of necessity be erased, so that they, too, in a moment of transformati'eecstasy, become *of no determined colour.* %his is a commonplace of )ersian

mysticism/ in one of his most beautiful 'erses, C"] also compares the spirits letting2go to the freedom from colour/

```````````````8)ersian 'erse:

8+asr translates this into 4nglish as *! am the sla'e of the will of that person whounder the aurs sphere has become free of the attachment to whate'er possessescolor.*: +am ad2d=n al2 PubrC repeats this image, with some 'ariation, in his 9aw/2i+al#Aam/l wa#9aw/ti+ al#Aal/l,imagining that the most profound centre of his soul 8hisqalb: is as colourless and uctuating as water, and able precisely for that reason toreect the in"nite, always changing attributes of 0od.

(h) $scetic war.%he mystics progress along the spiritual path under the representation of a struggleor combat against the forces of e'il6the de'il, sensual appetites, 'ices6has a longhistory as a moral or mystical allegory. !n his 0cclesiastical -ierarchies,the )seudo2Dionysius gi'es an early 8but fundamentally diMerent: outline of the detailed ande'en pictures;ue *warfare of the spirit,* in the description of which the mystics of theSpanish )eninsula seem to ha'e e>celled 8-oureno $ustiniano Gcf)3artins 17NH, Fray-uis de 0ranada, Fray &lonso de 3adrid, Osuna:, although there are also cases inother areas of 4urope, such as Suso. St $ohn of the #ross and St %eresa employed thetrope of spiritual battle as few others e'er did it seems to ha'e culminated 8thoughby now with other nuances: in the wor( of St !gnatius -oyola.

!slam employed the trope of ascetic warfare or battle during the 3iddle &ges, and in

'irtually the same terms as the )eninsular mystics. *%he Su"s,* says Fr FJli> )area,*often cite the UurCnic 'erse ?and those who fought ardently for us, we shall guidethem along our path for surely &llah is with those who do good* 89:. &nd the strictmystical application of the UurCnic 'ersesand hadithsor traditions of the )rophetare easy enough to "nd. &l25uw=r=s summary is perfect/

%he &postle said/ *e ha'e returned from the lesser holy war 8al#6ih/d al#aghar: to the greatest war 8al#6ih/d al#akbar:. . . . hat is the greatest warQ 5ereplied, *!t is the struggle against ones self 8mu6/hadat al#nafs:* 85ashf al#Ma+6.bTT:.


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%his, then, is the trope of a *6av/nmard4, cest2a2dire de ?che'alerie spirituelle,*according to #orbin 82homme19N:, whose brilliant insights into the trope include hissuggestion that the initial -am2&lif of the famous 3uslim dictum *lC illCha illa &llCh*8there is no god but &llah: has the shape of a sword6 6and therefore both heraldsand participates in that ascetic war. %hrough time, the image grew so familiar that

!bn Ua

= organied his followers into a sort of religious militia, in a forti"ed con'ent

8or rapita: in Sil'es 8)area @1:, hundreds of years before the birth of St !gnatius-oyola. &lmost all the most important Su"s appear to be aware of the theory/ &l20haCl= in his Iy/ >ul.m al#d4n 8cf))area 92A and +wyia, Ibn >*G/2 *ll/h N:,PubrC in his 9aw/i al Aam/l wa 9aw/ti al#Aal/l8cf)#orbin, 2homme99:, !bn ?&rab= inhis Tar6um/n al#ashw/q.

%he metaphor of spiritual combat is de'eloped into what one might almost call a*conceit* in !slam/ the *spiritual (night* wages battle against a siege on the castle ofhis soul, which is turreted and e;uipped with battlements and walled about byallegorical walls. !t would appear sometimes almost to be a chi'alric romance 8suchas those that St %eresa so delighted in reading: though 8 la divine,e>cept that the(nightly romances had not yet been written, in the ninth century if not before, whenthe Su"s were allegorising the interior castle of their soul. !n the *scent,St $ohn ofthe #ross spea(s of the *walls and battlements Gor in )eers translation, the fence andwallH of the heart* 8$!!!/ T/1 &'NT:, but the enigmatic "nal liraof the *Spiritual#anticle* is actually constructed upon the allegory of this battle against the de'il inthe impregnable fortress of the mystics spirit/ *Uue nadie lo miraba R &minadab

tampoco pareca R y el cerco sosegaba R y la caballera R a 'ista de las aguas

descenda* 8*+or did &mminadib appear R whom no one loo(ed upon R and the siegeabated R and the ca'alry R in sight of the waters descended.*:.

!n his glosses, St $ohn clears up, at least somewhat, the mystery of the words of thepoems ending, which gi'es the impression of being anticlimactic/ *G&minnadibHsigni"es the de'il 8spea(ing spiritually:, the souls ad'ersary* 8@AT/ &'7@:. %hisis an odd e;uation St $ohn ;uotes a 'erse from the Song of Songs entirely out ofconte>t 8*Or e'er ! was aware, my soul made li(e the chariots of &mminadib,* SongE/1: , though Fr Sulli'an thin(s the *;uotation* may come from an e>egesis by St

0regory. %he gloss gi'es the details of this spiritual battle/ &mminadib *fought andalways disturbed the soul with the innumerable armament of his artillery, so that thesoul might not enter into this fortress, and hiding2place of the inward withdrawal withthe Spouse* 8@AT/ &'7@:.

But the soul is now in contemplation and *the de'il not only dares not arri'e, but withgreat terror ees far away and dares not appear* 8ibid):. %hat is why the siege6clearly an addition to the castle6*abates*/ *By which wall Gor *fence*H is understoodhere. . . the passions and appetites of the soul, R whichG,H when they are not'an;uished and muled closelyG,H surround Gthe soulH and battle with it in one placeand yet another* 8@AT/A &'7@:. 5ere, clearly, the passions and appetites 8andthe de'il: ha'e been 'an;uished. &nd the *ca'alry*6another warli(e image6whichin descending *in 'iew of the waters* adds so much mystery to the stana, signi"essimply the *corporeal senses of the sensiti'e part* 8@AT/N &'7@: which descendand grow tran;uil in 'iew of the waters that are the good things or delights of thesoul in the state of absolute union.

5owe'er detailed St $ohns e>planation of his 'erses may be, if we are not familiarwith the allegory of the ascetic war, it may still remain ;uite mysterious and seemsomewhat forced or strained. But the !slamic conte>t begins to bring the battle2imagery into a more familiar perspecti'e. -et us loo( for a moment at a passage fromthe 5it/b#al#Tanw4r f4 isq/G al Tadb4r,by !bn ?&IC &llCh of &le>andria 8d. 1T9:/

G%heH dwellings of mystical certainty and the light that oods them all


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resemble the walls or battlements that encircle the city and its castles. %hewalls are the lights and the castles are the dwelling2places of mysticalcertainty, which surround the city of the heart. For him whose heart issurrounded by the wall of certainty and whose dwelling2places, which are thewalls of lights in the manner of castles, are whole and "rm, Satan has no pathby which to arri'e at him nor in his house does Satan "nd habitation in which

to rest 8&s

n ist for him who struggles with hispassions, nor for him who battles Satan, but e>ists only for him who is free

and serene from both dangers* 8&sn, *4l smil* A2:.

e should note the emphasis on "nal tran;uillity, serenity, consolation, and well2being, which St $ohn repeats in the three last lines of the *Spiritual #anticle* and theircorresponding glosses. &l20haCl= also insists on that state of serenity/ *Satan shallee in disappointment and without any further hope of perturbing. . . thy unitary

intuition* 8&sn, espiritualidad / E1:. !n the ninth century, and once moreemploying the metaphor of ascetic warfare or combat that the soul wages from thebattlements of its interior castles or fortresses, +Lr= of Baghdad also sets Satanoutside, where he bar(s in 'ain and cannot "nd a way in/ *Satan. . . bar(s from

without this castle as the dog bar(s* 8Maq/m/t!!!, p. 1E:/St $ohn of the #ross, a 'aliant (night of the spirit, struggles more "ercely yet. 5ereminds us of some spiritual St 0eorge battling against an infernal beast, a se'en2headed dragon/

5appy the soul that is able to do battle against that beast of the &pocalypse81/: with its se'en heads, the opposite of these se'en grades of lo'e,against each one of which GheadsH he wages war, and against each one ofwhich he "ghts with his soul Gas ally or weapon or protagonistH in each one ofthese mansions in which the soul is struggling and gaining each grade of lo'e


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of 0od. hich, without doubt, if the soul faithfully do battle in each one andtriumph, it shall merit going onward from grade to grade and from mansion tomansion until the last, lea'ing the beasts se'en heads, with which it did"erce battle, cut oM. . . . &nd thus the pain is great in many men who enterinto spiritual battle against the beast yet are not yet ripe to cut oM e'en its"rst head by denying the sensual things of the world and once some men

master themsel'es and do cut it oM, still they cannot cut oM the second, whichis the 'isions of the sense that we ha'e been spea(ing of. But what hurts e'enmore is that some, ha'ing cut oM not only the second and the "rst, but e'enthe third6which is that which concerns the sensiti'e inward senses, passingfrom the state of meditation, and e'en farther on6, ust as they enter into thepurity of spirit they are 'an;uished by this spiritual beast, and it once againrises up against them and e'en the "rst head ta(es on life again, and thusma(es the last years of them worse than the "rst in their falling2bac(, ta(inganother se'en spirits with it worse than he 83!!/ 11/1T &'A1E:.

But once again, the Su"s *chi'alric romance 8 la divine* includes the "gure of amystical 'aliant (night who does battle precisely against a dragon6sometimes,precisely a se'en2headed one6whose graphic representation 8with commentaries in)ersian: we see in a miniature contained in a )ersian manuscript by ShCh +Cmeh

8Fig. A:. !n that same manuscript we see another illustration 8Fig. N:, in which thespiritual (night, with a handsome steed and lu>urious clothing, is presented in themidst of battle against malign spirits that bloc( his mystical path. %hese al6ines orgenii 8of UurCnic lineage: resemble monstrous animals or 'ermin that elude easydescription/ against such creatures, we might recall, St $ohn and St %eresa alsoheroically battled.

(i) The soul as a garden.

&nother image that is ;uite e>tensi'ely employed in 4uropean mysticism but that St$ohn of the #ross and the Su"s employ in amaingly e>act parallel and detail, is apar( li(e place or ower2garden in representation of the soul in a state of oneness.

%his garden, the *uniti'e station* 8al#maq/m al#6/mi> :in !bn ?&rab= 8T** EN:, ise>plored and codi"ed more fully by +Lr= of Baghdad than any other author. +Lr=

dedicated se'eral chapters of his Maq/m/t al#qul.bto a description of the wondersof the garden/ its owers, rain showers, fragrances, breees. St $ohn of the #ross also"nds these delicate allegorical elements in his garden or *huerto* 8@A/E &'E77:,which is at the same time his soul. %he breee that refreshes the poets ecstaticspirit, inherited as it is no doubt from the Spanish 'ersions of the Song of Songs, inthe glosses ta(es on a mystical cast that is often recognisably !slamic. %he southwind or


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of the Song of Songs 8*ulnerasti cor meum in uno crine tui,* A/9 *thou hastwounded my heart in a loc( of thy hair*: rather than the Spanish translation by Fray

-uis 8*robaste mi coran con uno de los tus oos, y con sartal de tu cuello*/ *you stolemy heart with one of your eyes, and with a string Gas of beads, etc.H of your nec(* cf)the Ping $ames 'ersion/ *%hou hast ra'ished my heart, my sister, my spouse/ thouhast ra'ished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy nec(*:. 5owe'er,

Fray -uis, commenting on another passage of the epithalamion 87/N/ *%u cabea comoel #armelo/ y los cabellos de tu cabea como purpura de ey atada en canales*/*Zour head GisH li(e #armel/ and the hairs of your head li(e Pings crimson bound inchannels* but cf)the Ping $ames 'ersion/ *%hine head upon thee is li(e #armel, andthe hair of thine head li(e purple/ the (ing is held in the galleries*:, notes that the*(ing* is held within the Brides hair as though in a bond/

. . . says that Gthe hairH is a snare,and li(e a chainin which by her inestimablebeauty, the (ing, which is Solomon her Spouse, is prisoner 80arca -orca1@:.

%he image of the Bridegroom *held capti'e* by the Brides loc(s is not un(nown toother traditions that St $ohn might ha'e been familiar with. Damaso &lonsodocuments the "gure in popular poetry and 4milio Oroco 8T: "nds it in %heocritus

Fifth !dyll 8l. 9T: 8*& shining loc( of hair curling along the nec(*:. Fr #risgono y 3ar

aosa -ida tell us that other, secular, lo'ers also employ the motif/ we "nd the trope in

0arcilasos #ancin !, though somewhat generalied/ *De los cabellos de oro fue

teida R la red ;ue fabricmi sentimiento. . . . )ues soy por los cabellos arrastrado* 8*Ofher golden hair was wo'en R the net which my emotions made. . . . For ! am by thehair dragged along*:. &nd )etrarch had already used it, more than once/ *dico lechiome bionde, el crespo laccio, R che si soa'emente lega e stringe R lalma* 8*QQQ*:8Sonnet 19@: *e folgorare Gof the eyesH i nodi Gof the hairH ond io son preso* 8*QQQ*:8Sonnet 19@:. But it was the Su"s who hundreds of years earlier had turned to religio2mystical purposes the poetic motif of the curls or loc(s of hair that seduce and entrapand imprison, and which 4uropeans li(e )etrarch and 0arcilaso only employed at theprofane le'el. ould St $ohn of the #ross, once again, be treading !slamic ground,recei'ing the image ready2wor(ed to his purposes from 3uslim poets and writers,who would appear to be much closer to his uses than were the writers and poets ofthe enaissance and the #lassicsQ St $ohn gi'es some e'idence of (nowledge of thesecret e;ui'alence of the 1ulfor *loc( of hair* 8cf)&rberry, $u:sm11: that is the*hoo(* or *snare* by which so many Su"s, such as !bn ?&rab= and Shabistar=, snarethe Deity or are ensnared/

!f you as( me the long story R Of the Belo'eds curl, R ! cannot answer, for itcontains a mystery R hich only true lo'ers understand, R &nd they,maddened by its beauty, R &re held capti'e as by a golden chain 8-ederer T:.

%he Su"s, with their characteristic 'erbal imagination, metaphorically trans"gure thiscurl into the l/m8the letter :, which has the same shape/ V.

%hus far we ha'e been e>ploring the parallels between the mystical Symbolism of St

$ohn of the #ross and the Su"s/ the abundance of these parallels and their e>actcorrespondence allow us to see how seminal 8and to a degree prescient: those early

essays were in which &sn )alacios lin(ed St $ohn of the #ross to literary and

mystical conte>ts within !slam. &sn was laying the groundwor( for research that isstill in a sense only beginning, and which has thrown and is still throwing new light onthe wor(s of St $ohn of the #ross6a body of wor( which has traditionally been seenas so "lled with mysteries. -et us now loo( at the case of St %eresa de $esus.

sufi trobar clus and spanish. lópez-baralt

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