A certain king had a garden which through all the four seasons never lacked for fragrant herbs, lush grasses and joyous pleasances; great waters therein flowed, and all types of birds sitting in the branches poured forth songs of every kind. Indeed, every melody that could enter the mind and every beauty that imagination might conceive, all was to be found in that garden.

Moreover a company of peacocks, exceedingly graceful, elegant and fair, had made their abode and dwelling-place there.

One day the king laid hold of one of the peacocks and gave orders that it should be sewn up in a leather jacket, in such a way that none of the colours of its wings remained visible, and however much he tried he could not look upon his own beauty. He also commanded that over his head a basket should be placed having only one opening, through which a few grains of millet may be dropped, sufficient to keep him alive.

Some time passed, and the peacock forgot about himself, the garden-kingdom and the other peacocks. Whenever he looked at himself he saw nothing but a filthy, ugly sack of leather and a very dark and disagreeable dwelling-place. To that he reconciled himself, and it became fixed in his mind that no land could exist larger than the basket in which it was.

He firmly believed that if anyone should pretend that there was a pleasurable life or an abode of perfection beyond it, it would be rank heresy and utter nonsense and stupidity. For all of that, whenever a breeze blew and the scent of the flowers and trees, the roses and violets and jasmine and fragrant herbs was wafted to him through the hole, he experienced a strange delight and was curiously moved, so that the joy of flight filled his heart.

He felt a mighty yearning within him, but knew not the source of that yearning, for he had no idea that he was anything but a piece of leather, having forgotten everything beyond his basket-world and fare of millet. Again, if ever he heard the modulations of the peacocks and the songs of the other birds he was likewise transported with yearning and longing; yet he was not wakened out of his trance by the voices of the birds and the breath of the zephyr.

MORAL: The believer and the Dunyaa (worldly involvements).