When Zuleikha heard these words she made a house for Love and held him
in greater esteem than her own life until such time as Joseph entered Egypt.
The people of Egypt were put into consternation, and the news reached
Zuleikha. She told Love of this affair. He seized her by the collar, and off
they went to see Joseph. When Zuleikha beheld him she wanted to go
forward, but her heart’s foot struck the stone of amazement and she fell
out of the circle of patience. She stretched out the hand of blame and ripped
the veil of chastity from herself and,all at once, turned melancholic. The
people of Egypt fell upon her cloak.^28
Radically condensing the tale, Suhrawardi presents the regal throne of
Joseph and Zuleikha as the site where Jacob and his sons prostrate them-
selves in shame at having not recognized the divine. A story initially
warning against duplicity thus became an admonition to recognize the
divine through love, as used at the end of Attar’sLanguage of the Birds.In
his Book of Suffering (Musibatnamah), Attar also elaborated on
Suhrawardi’s“house for Love” by describing the paintings of herself
Zuleikha commissioned to attract Joseph.^29
In his late fourteenth-centuryBustan,Sa’di crystallized the narrative
climax of the seduction scene. Yet instead of focusing on the drama of the
seduction or the internalized vision of Joseph, Sa’di incorporates
Zuleikha’s idol, as mentioned in Genesis Rabbah.
Zuleikha, drunk with the wine of love,
Hung by the hand on Joseph’s skirts;
So hard she yielded to appetite’s demon
That she had fallen on him like a wolf.
Now, that Egyptian lady had a marble idol
To which she was devoted, morn and evening,
And at that moment she covered up its face and head,
Lest it should have an ugly view of what went forward;
Grief-stained, Joseph in a corner sat,
Hands upon head against the tyranny of lower-self;
Zuleikha now kissed his two hands and feet;
“Weakling in your promises, insubordinate, come on!
Draw not your face to frown in anvil-heartedness!
Scatter not this moment sweet in sourness!”
At this, down his countenance a stream from out his eyes began toflow;
“Desist, seek not impurity from me!
You before a stone became ashamed:
Let me feel shame before the Pure Lord Himself!(^28) Suhrawardi, 1982 : 70. (^29) Attar, 2017 : 126.
232 The Transgressive Image