The Masnavi (Mesnevi)

A "Chief Ass" The author notes that "Oberesel" is the only way to translate the Persian term khärbät, referring to a boorish or foolish person. from the stable of donkeys
Now lets the sound of his mockery ring out:
"The Masnavi original: Mesnevi consists only of tedious
Stories of prophets and of saints.
Within it, no mystery is revealed to us,
Nor is the thirst of our drive for knowledge quenched.
There, no new path is shown to us,
Upon which one might climb upward step by step.
It does not lead us upward in a straight direction
From 'renunciation' to 'self-annihilation' Self-annihilation; or fana, the Sufi concept of the dissolving of the ego in the Divine,
And ever further to the highest height,
The final goal of mysticism: 'proximity to God.'
Instead, they are just foolish little stories,
From A to Z, nothing but nursery tales."

When God’s Book once appeared on earth,
The mockers cried out just the same:
"There are only silly stories in there,
Entirely without truth or deeper meaning.
A proper schoolbook for little children!
It serves for entertainment, no more and no less:
Of Adam and the serpent in Paradise,
Of Hud A prophet in the Quran sent to the tribe of ʿAd; the author notes that details on figures not found in the Bible are provided in the work's appendix. and how he made the storm wind blow,
Of Abraham and of the blazing fire,
In which he found a garden of roses,
Of Noah and the ark with wife and man
And of the sinful people in Canaan.
Of Joseph with the beautiful curly hair,
With whom the wife of Potiphar fell in love,
Of Ishmael and how it happened so well,
That the sacrificial sheep was right at hand,"