The Vanity of metaphysic. 
127 
Then, when thou hast Him, cease to speculate— 
Who hath the How is careless of the Why.4 
 
So I, Habib, thy podex sodomize ; 
With simple art the Mullahs I defy 
 
To analyse the mystery ;  nor care 
So long as I am in the galaxy 
 
Of sevenfold Suraiya ;  El Qahar 
Lifteth his member evermore5 on high. 
 
So doth wise El Qahar to El Qahar 
The fool by El Qahar the bard reply. 
 
 
 
1.  Suraiya. — the Pleiades. 
2.  Hell.  
3.  The passage in brackets is certainly spu-
rious.  We retain it as shewing the ingenuity of in-
terpretation employed in this class of literature. 
4.  The natural (though hardly altogether just) 
contempt of the practical expert for the arm-chair 
critic. 
5.  Surely Oriental exaggeration.