This Good Works Translation is made from the 1888 Arabic printed text of Kitab Bilawhar wa-Budhasaf fi al-mawa'iz wa-al-amthal al-hikmiyah. This passage gives Bilawhar's answer to Budasaf's question about why not all people benefit from wisdom.
Translation
Budasaf said, "What, then, is the matter with this wisdom that you have described, with the strength, excellence, and nobility you have described? Why do all people not benefit from it?"
Bilawhar said, "It is like two suns rising together. Neither one falls short of the other in radiant light. When they coincide upon someone over whom they rise, they do not shine upon the same field: one rises upon sight, and the other rises upon hearts.
"As for the visible sun, when it rises upon visible eyes it reaches all people and divides created beings into three stations. Among them is the person of sound sight, whom light benefits and who has strength to look at it. Among them is the blind person, estranged from light; if a sun, or many suns, rose upon him, it would avail him nothing. Among them is the person sick of sight, who is counted neither among the blind nor among the healthy, except that he looks at the sun according to the strength of his sight.
"So too wisdom, which is the sun of hearts: when it rises upon created beings, it divides its people into three stations. One station belongs to the people of sight, who know by wisdom and become its people by choosing it, believing it, striving with sight to tend wisdom, preserving it, and magnifying it. Then they set their days to work by it, and they work to seek knowledge of what they do not know.
"Another station belongs to the people blind in heart, from whose hearts wisdom recoils just as the light of the sun recoils from the sight of the blind. Another station belongs to the people sick of heart, whose action falls short, whose knowledge is weak, and whom evil and good, truth and falsehood, and good and evil unsettle.
"Yet these two suns differ in this: most of those upon whom the inward sun rises are blind to it. For that there are clear signs in it when it is made plain, and proofs that show wonders. Knowledge of that will come to you in that matter.
"At the same time, every station among the people of inward sight contains a difference not found in outward sight. The people of the first class and the second class, though all are ascribed to sight, differ in their ranks and vary among themselves, even though one name gathers them: answering the truth and seeking wisdom.
"As for their difference among themselves, their likeness is like pearls. The name 'pearl' gathers them, but they differ among themselves in excellence until a single pearl may reach the price of a qintar, another may reach a dirham, and what lies between them follows the stations of prices.
"So too the station of the people of blindness is varied. Among them is one who is blind to truth but does not plunge into falsehood. Among them is one who does not stop at blindness to truth until he becomes hostile to it, schemes against it, and sets up grudges against it. Then, in this, they differ according to the measure of their difference, their strength, their weakness, and the kinds of diseases that clothe them."
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was made from the Arabic text of Kitab Bilawhar wa-Budhasaf fi al-mawa'iz wa-al-amthal al-hikmiyah, al-Matba' al-Safdari, 1888. The English body is newly written from the Arabic source.
Source Colophon
Primary source witness: Google Books volume vYacAQAACAAJ, Kitab Bilawhar wa-Budhasaf fi al-mawa'iz wa-al-amthal al-hikmiyah, al-Matba' al-Safdari, 1888, original from Harvard.
Translated passage: Bilawhar's answer about the two suns and the conditions of hearts, printed Arabic pages 66-69. The translated passage begins inside page 66, after Bilawhar's answer about the speech of God and the light of wisdom, and ends near the top of page 69, before Budasaf dismisses Bilawhar for the night.
Public source: https://books.google.com/books?id=vYacAQAACAAJ
Source Text
Arabic Text
قال بوداسف فما بال هذه الحكمة التي
وصفت من قوتها وفضلها وشرفها ما وصفت لا ينتفع
بها الناس جميعا قال بلوهر انها شمسان تطلعان جميعا
ليس لواحدة منها تقصير على الاخرى من النور الساطع
فاذا وافقتا من طلعتا عليه لم تعم احداهما تطلع على الابصار
والاخرى تطلع على القلوب فاما الشمس الظاهرة فانا
اذا طلعت على الابصار الظاهرة عمت الناس جميعا وفرقت
الخلق على ثلث منازل فمنهم صحيح البصر الذي ينفعه الضوء
ويقوى على النظر فيه ومنهم الاعمى الغريب من الضوء
الذي لو طلعت عليه شمس او شموس كثيرة لم تغن عنه
شيئا ومنهم المريض البصر الذي لم يعد في العميان ولا
في الاصحاء الا انه ينظر الى الشمس بقدر قوة بصره و
كذلك الحكمة التي هي شمس القلوب اذا طلعت على الخلق
فرقت اهلها على ثلث منازل منزلة لاهل البصر الذين
يعلمون بالحكمة ويكونون اهلها باجتبائها و
اعتقادها واجتهاد البصر في مراعات الحكمة وحفظها و
تعظيمها ثم يجعلون ايامهم في العمل بها ويعملون في ابتغاء
علم ما لا يعلمون ومنزلة لاهل عمي القلوب الذين تنبو
الحكمة عن قلوبهم كما ينبو ضوء الشمس عن بصر العميان
ومنزلة لاهل مرض القلوب الذين يقصر عملهم
ويضعف علمهم ويستفزهم السي والحسن والحق والباطل
والخير والشر غير ان هاتين الشمسين يفترق بينهما ان اكثر
من تطلع عليه الشمس الباطنة من العمي عنها ولذلك
اعلام واضحة فيها عند ما يضاحها ودلايل تظهر عجايب و
سيأتيك علم ذلك في ذاك مع ان كل منزلة من منازل
اهل البصر الباطن فيها من الاختلاف ماليس في البصر
الظاهر فاهل الطبقة الاولى والطبقة الثانية الذين
كلهم منسوبوا الى البصر يختلفون في طبقاتهم متفاوتون
فيما بينهم وان جمعهم اسم واحد من اجابة الحق وطلاب
الحكمة واما اختلافها فيما بينهم فمثلهم في ذلك كاللؤلؤ
الذي يجمعه اسم اللؤلؤ ثم يبلغ في اختلافه فيما بينهم
من التفاضل ان الحبة من اللؤلؤ الواحدة يبلغ ثمنها
القنطار والاخرى يبلغ درهم وما بين ذلك على منازل
الاثمان وكذلك منزلة اهل العمى مختلفة فمنهم من عمي
عن الحق ولا ينهمك في الباطل ومنهم من لا يقتصر على
العمي عن الحق حتى يعاديه ويكايده وينصب له الضغاين ثم
في ذلك متفاوتة على قدر تفاوتهم وقوتهم وضعفهم و
صنوف الادواء التي تلبسهم