Monday, June 1, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Wisdom Literature
Arabic wisdom and narrative literature: Bilawhar and Budhasaf and related moral prose.
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Texts
Bilawhar and Budhasaf — Bilawhar's Arrival and the Parables of the Coffins and the WellThe third public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Budhasaf's wound lesson, Bilawhar's arrival, and the parables of the coffins, the seed, the physician, and the well.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — Birth, Confinement, and the Wound of AwakeningThe second public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Budhasaf's birth, confinement, first sights of sickness, blindness, and age, and the wound by which he answers King Janaysar's test.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — Opening Praise and the Renunciant Before King JanaysarThe opening of the 1888 Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf: praise, King Janaysar of India, and the renunciant's rebuke of the world.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — Renunciation and the Dogs Over CarrionThe fifth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar on renunciation, bodily frailty, the burned renunciants, and the dogs over carrion.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Call of Truth and Its WitnessesThe seventh public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar on the divine call of truth, its corruption by false claimants, and the witnesses against them.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Eating of NecessityThe sixth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar's parable of the king driven by hunger and the eating of necessity.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The First Things of Religion and the Speech of TruthThe thirteenth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Budasaf asks about the first things of religion, hears the proof of the Creator, learns the use of knowledge and discipline, and is brought through the speech of truth to faith in God and the hereafter.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Flight Question, True Life, and the Bird's Three WordsThe twelfth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Budasaf asks to flee with Bilawhar, hears the rich son's parable, learns true life, and receives the bird's three words against idol-worship.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Prophets' Seasons and the Bird Called QadimThe eighth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar's garden parable for the prophets' seasons and the bird called Qadim.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Speech of God and the Light of WisdomThe ninth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar on divine speech, prophetic language, and wisdom as light and proof.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Three Companions and the One-Year KingThe fourth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar's parables of the three companions and the city that keeps a king for one year.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Two Suns and the Conditions of HeartsThe tenth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar on the two suns, outward sight, inward sight, and the conditions of hearts.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The Water Source, the Poor Couple, and the SwimmerThe eleventh public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Bilawhar on returning to wisdom, the water source, the poor couple in the cave, and the swimmer who saves his companion.Bilawhar and Budhasaf — The World as Prison and the Desert GardenThe fourteenth public Arabic Bilawhar and Budhasaf unit: Budasaf asks again for renunciation of the world, and Bilawhar answers with the world as a prison, two opposed abodes, the world's reversal of gifts, and the desert garden parable.