You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation. And I too am my own forerunner, for the long shadow str...

Once there came from the desert to the great city of Sharia a man who was a dreamer, and he had naught but his garment and a staff. And as he walked through the streets he gazed with awe and wonder at...

They say the jackal and the mole Drink from the self-same stream Where the lion comes to drink. And they say the eagle and the vulture Dig their beaks into the same carcass, And are at peace, one with...

They told me that in a forest among the mountains lives a young man in solitude who once was a king of a vast country beyond the Two Rivers. And they also said that he, of his own will, had left his t...

Four slaves stood fanning an old queen who was asleep upon her throne. And she was snoring. And upon the queen’s lap a cat lay purring and gazing lazily at the slaves. The first slave spoke, and said,...

Thus sings the She-Dragon that guards the seven caves by the sea: “My mate shall come riding on the waves. His thundering roar shall fill the earth with fear, and the flames of his nostrils shall set ...

In my youth I once visited a saint in his silent grove beyond the hills; and as we were conversing upon the nature of virtue a brigand came limping wearily up the ridge. When he reached the grove he k...

In my wanderings I once saw upon an island a man-headed, iron-hoofed monster who ate of the earth and drank of the sea incessantly. And for a long while I watched him. Then I approached him and said, ...

This came to pass. After the coronation of Nufsibaäl, King of Byblus, he retired to his bed chamber⁠—the very room which the three hermit-magicians of the mountain had built for him. He took off his c...

Once, high above a pasture, where a sheep and a lamb were grazing, an eagle was circling and gazing hungrily down upon the lamb. And as he was about to descend and seize his prey, another eagle appear...

One nightfall a man travelling on horseback toward the sea reached an inn by the roadside. He dismounted, and confident in man and night like all riders toward the sea, he tied his horse to a tree bes...

Four poets were sitting around a bowl of punch that stood on a table. Said the first poet, “Methinks I see with my third eye the fragrance of this wine hovering in space like a cloud of birds in an en...

Said the weather-cock to the wind, “How tedious and monotonous you are! Can you not blow any other way but in my face? You disturb my God-given stability.” And the wind did not answer. It only laughed...

Once the elders of the city of Aradus presented themselves before the king, and besought of him a decree to forbid to men all wine and all intoxicants within their city. And the king turned his back u...

Out of my deeper heart a bird rose and flew skyward. Higher and higher did it rise, yet larger and larger did it grow. At first it was but like a swallow, then a lark, then an eagle, then as vast as a...

The Queen of Ishana was in travail of childbirth; and the King and the mighty men of his court were waiting in breathless anxiety in the great hall of the Winged Bulls. At eventide there came suddenly...

Four frogs sat upon a log that lay floating on the edge of a river. Suddenly the log was caught by the current and swept slowly down the stream. The frogs were delighted and absorbed, for never before...

Said a sheet of snow-white paper, “Pure was I created, and pure will I remain forever. I would rather be burnt and turn to white ashes than suffer darkness to touch me or the unclean to come near me.”...

Said the serpent to the lark, “Thou flyest, yet thou canst not visit the recesses of the earth where the sap of life moveth in perfect silence.” And the lark answered, “Aye, thou knowest over much, na...

Once a man unearthed in his field a marble statue of great beauty. And he took it to a collector who loved all beautiful things and offered it to him for sale, and the collector bought it for a large ...

A fish said to another fish, “Above this sea of ours there is another sea, with creatures swimming in it⁠—and they live there even as we live here.” The fish replied, “Pure fancy! Pure fancy! When you...

On a moonless night a man entered into his neighbour’s garden and stole the largest melon he could find and brought it home. He opened it and found it still unripe. Then behold a marvel! The man’s con...

Wait, wait yet awhile, my eager friend. I shall yield but too soon this wasted thing, Whose agony overwrought and useless Exhausts your patience. I would not have your honest hunger Wait upon these mo...

Beyond my solitude is another solitude, and to him who dwells therein my aloneness is a crowded marketplace and my silence a confusion of sounds. Too young am I and too restless to seek that above-sol...

At the high-tide of night, when the first breath of dawn came upon the wind, the Forerunner, he who calls himself echo to a voice yet unheard, left his bedchamber and ascended to the roof of his house...