AN IDIOT looked at a browsing camel. He said to it: ‘Your appearance is awry. Why is this so?’ The camel replied: ‘In judging the impression made, you are attributing a fault to that which shaped the form. Be aware of this! Do not consider my crooked appearance a fault. ‘Get away from me, by the shortest route. My appearance is thus for function, for a reason.
The bow needs the bentness as well as the straightness of the bowstring. ‘Fool, begone! An ass’s perception goes with an ass’s nature.’
Maulana Majdud, known as Hakim Sanai the Illuminated Reviving Sage of Ghazna, writes extensively on the unreliability of subjective impressions and conditioned judgments. One of his sayings is: ‘In the distorting mirror of your mind, an angel can seem to have a devil’s face.’ This parable is from his Walled Garden of Truth, which was written about 1130.