Sultan Mahmud and the Character of Ayaz

Someone found fault with the king of Ghazni: 'How strange, Ayaz has no real beauty.' A flower with neither color nor scent, it's odd that a nightingale should long for it. When someone told this to Mahmud, he turned the thought over and over in his mind. 'My love, sir, is for his character, not for his handsome height and figure.' I heard that in a narrow pass a camel stumbled and fell, and a treasure chest broke open. The king waved his sleeve, giving the spilled wealth away as plunder, and quickly spurred his horse from there. The riders scattered after the pearls and coral, abandoning the sultan to grab the loot. Of all the proud young attendants, none stayed at the king's side except Ayaz. The king looked and said, 'My curly-haired darling, what did you carry off from the plunder?' He answered, 'Nothing.' 'I was riding close behind you; I would not leave your service for riches.' If you have any nearness at the royal court, don't let a robe of honor make you forget the king himself. It goes against the mystic path for saints to ask of God anything other than God. If your eye is fixed on the Friend's gifts rather than the Friend, you are bound to yourself, not to the Beloved. As long as your mouth hangs open with greed, the secret from the unseen won't reach the ear of your heart. Truth is a beautifully adorned house, but desire and craving stir up dust. Don't you see that where dust has risen, the eye cannot see, even if the man has sight?