Contemplation...

"Once in the season of spring,

she (Rabi'a al
'Adawiyya) went into her chamber and bowed her head in
meditation.

Her handmaid said, 'Oh, mistress, come
forth that thou mayst behold the wondrous works of
God,'

"'Nay,' she answered, 'do thou come within, that thou
mayst behold their Maker.

Contemplation of the Maker
hath turned me from contemplating that which He
made.'"

Rabi'a
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (1971), p. 154-155