I relish it whenever my own hand runs across my body,
for in truth I am nothing but You.

So we seek refuge in Allah from going astray.

Ibn al-Aʿrabi related: “One day Ruwaym, Abu Bakr the Perfumer, and I were walking along the river-bank when we came upon a man sitting in a roofless mosque.
Ruwaym exclaimed, ‘How much this man looks like Abu al-Ḥusayn al-Nūrī!’
We went over to him, and it was indeed he. We greeted him, and he recognized us. He told us that he had grown weary of al-Raqqah and had come downstream, that he had just arrived and did not know where to go, and that he had been away from Baghdad for fourteen years. We offered him our mosque, but he said, ‘I do not want a place where there are Sufis; I am tired of them.’
We persisted in urging him until he felt comfortable.

Melancholy had taken hold of him, and he was plagued by inner misgivings; his eyesight had weakened, his heart was broken, and he had lost his companions, so he felt estranged from everyone.

After a while he grew more at ease and asked us about Naṣr ibn Rajāʾ and ʿUthmān—both were friends of his, though Naṣr had turned against him. He said, ‘The only thing that makes me fear returning to Baghdad is Naṣr.’
We assured him that Naṣr was no longer as he had been when they parted, so he came with us to see him. When he entered Naṣr’s mosque, Naṣr rose and spared no effort in honoring him, and we spent the night there.

On Friday we boarded one of Naṣr’s boats and sailed to a certain place, then went up to Junayd. The gathering stood up and rejoiced; Junayd turned toward him, conversing and joking with him.
Ibn Masrūq posed a question to Junayd, who said, ‘Refer it to Abū al-Qāsim.’
Junayd then said, ‘Answer, Abū al-Ḥusayn, for the brethren would like to hear your reply.’

He said, ‘I have only just arrived, and I prefer to listen.’
Junayd and the others continued speaking while al-Nūrī remained silent. They prompted him to contribute, but he replied, ‘You have adopted titles I do not recognize and speech unlike what I used to hear; so let me listen first and understand what you are aiming at.’

They asked him about the differentiation (farq) that follows the union (jamʿ): what is its sign, and how does it differ from the first differentiation?—I do not know whether they put the question in these exact words or only in substance.