Figures & creatures

Portrait of the first: a garden clearing where all things, beasts, birds, fruits and stars, gather in attentive rings around one empty place of honor beneath the tree of trial; bowing wing-forms of light at the edges; one path descending from the garden toward a distant blue earth.

Portrait of the elevated: a slender stairway of light climbing past moon and stars to a high station among the constellations; an open inkwell and reed pen resting on the lowest step; quiet, vertical, serene.

Portrait of patience: the dark planked ark at rest on the mountain of Judi, dove circling with a sprig; behind it, faint layered rains and receding flood; before it, a workbench of adze and pitch pot beside centuries of unheeded lantern-light.

Portrait against the storm: a single firm tent-post and unbroken lamp standing upright while a colossal barren wind bends everything else flat; the pillared halls of Iram toppling at the horizon; sand curling like waves.

Portrait of the sign: a noble she-camel drinking at a spring that splits living rock, her day of water marked by a golden sun-disc; behind her, cliff dwellings carved in rose stone; a severed hamstring-blade lying condemned and rusting in the corner shadow.

Portrait of the friend: a great fire turned into a cool garden of roses around one untouched empty place; a hammer resting among broken idols with the largest idol left standing accused; the foundations of the House rising; a sky where star, moon and sun each set while one dawn does not.

Portrait of the rescued: a lone lit doorway leaving a city at night as the city behind it turns upside down in the distance; a road of first light ahead; one pillar of salt-gray shadow looking back.

Portrait of the willing: a ransom ram descending on rays toward an altar stone beside a laid-down, unused blade; a desert spring bubbling where a small heel struck sand; two builders' trowels raising the House's wall together.

Portrait of glad tidings: a laden guest table with the roasted calf untouched; through the doorway, an old orchard breaking into impossible spring blossom; laughter rendered as ripples of light through the room.

Portrait of beautiful patience: an empty chair turned toward a long road; eyes' grief rendered as two clouded moons clearing to brightness as a blue embroidered shirt arrives on the wind; twelve small stars gathered home around one bright one.

Portrait of the dreamer: a torn blue robe draped across a well's rim beneath eleven bowing stars with sun and moon; a caravan rope descending; behind, granary domes of gold and a palace gate open in forgiveness.

Portrait of endurance: a stamped spring of cool healing water breaking at the foot of a patient tree stripped of leaves but not of roots, new green returning branch by branch; a soft bundle of grasses laid beside it, an oath kept gently.

Portrait of the just measure: a merchant's balance in perfect level over a market table of grain and dates; short-weighted scales lying broken in shadow; a mountain shadow of warning at the edge of a fair oasis town.

Portrait of the spoken-to: a staff mid-transformation into a living serpent before two towering walls of parted sea; behind, a bush of fire that does not consume on the holy valley floor beside two set-aside sandals; two stone tablets glowing on the mountain above.

Portrait of the brother: a second staff leaning in support beside the first; an eloquent breastplate of clear speech rendered as a gorget of light; before them, the hollow golden calf toppled and mute; a bond of light joining the two staffs at the grip.

Portrait of the guarantor: a sealed pledge scroll held in a niche of steadfast stone, a lamp above it that has never gone out; everything square, quiet, kept.

Portrait of the psalmist-king: a coat of chainmail woven from softened iron rings suspended like falling water; mountains and birds arranged in echo around it as if mid-psalm; a sling stone resting against a fallen giant's massive empty helmet; two ewes on a scale of judgment in the corner.

Portrait of the granted kingdom: a great throne over a glass floor over flowing water; the wind held in a bridle of light; a fountain of molten copper; a hoopoe presenting a sealed letter; below, a valley of ants safely detouring an army's banners; at the throne's base, a humble termite-eaten staff telling the truth at last.

Portrait against Baal: a toppled ornate idol lying prone before a single vertical flame of true devotion on a hilltop altar; rain returning to a cracked land in thin silver lines.

Portrait of the continued lamp: a lamp passed from one niche to a second niche in the same wall, the flame identical; a mantle folded neatly beneath the new light.

Portrait of the returned: a great fish diving through deep lapis water, a pearl of prayer-light glowing within it; above the waterline, a gourd vine arching over a bare shore; a city on the horizon spared under lifting clouds.

Portrait of the quiet prayer: a mihrab holding out-of-season fruit; an old bare almond branch flowering overnight; three days of silence rendered as three unstruck bells hanging mute while light speaks instead.

Portrait of tenderness: a child-sized prayer book open on a reading stand wet with morning dew; a green reed growing straight among thorns; a small clean robe on a peg, marked with neither pride nor stain.

Portrait of the word: an empty cradle radiating speech as rings of light; clay birds on a sill mid-transformation into living ones; a laden table descending from heaven; a healing touch rendered as light passing from an empty sleeve to a folded blind-man's cane left behind; above, an ascent of light through a parted sky, the cross-shaped shadow below left empty and refuted.

Portrait as illuminated absence, the most reverent of the set: a radiant empty mihrab under the split moon, filled only with light; the cave of Hira glowing above it and the two sanctuaries joined by a thread of light below; a rose of the seal at the arch's crown; the composition complete precisely because its center is not depicted.

Portrait of the devoted: a palm tree bending its ripe dates over a newly sprung stream beside a quiet eastern retreat; a prayer niche with fruit no season explains; a veil of light drawn across the composition's heart, chosen above the women of the worlds.

Portrait of the palace believer: a single true lamp burning steadily inside a colossal dark fortress hall; through its one window, a small house of light waiting near to God; chains at the door turned to fallen leaves.

Portrait of entrusted love: an empty woven basket riding a moonlit river between reed banks, wrapped in a glow of promise; on the far bank, palace steps; a heart rendered as a knot of light held firm from above.

Portrait of the wise sovereign: a magnificent jeweled throne mid-journey between two lands on a beam of light; a glass floor mistaken for water with her hem's ripple frozen above it; a sun-disc she once worshiped setting behind a rising truer dawn.

Portrait of laughing wonder: a doorway curtain still swaying beside an untouched feast for guests of light; an ancient fruitless bough bursting into blossom; laughter as sparks of gold scattering through the room.

Portrait of the vow: an offered cradle placed at a temple gate, wrapped in dedication ribbons; inside the gate, a mihrab already glowing to receive; a lineage of light flowing from the cradle forward.

Portrait of desire and confession: a torn hem from behind on a fine robe fleeing toward a door; a banquet of citrons with small knives set down beside cut fingers' scattered rings; at last, a scale where her spoken truth outweighs her silks.

Portrait of modest strength: two water jars waiting with shy patience at a distance from a crowded well; a stone trough filled by an unseen kindness; a walking-path home marked by lowered light.

Portrait of the heard complaint: a thin thread of voice rising from a humble doorway through seven heavens into concentric rings of divine attention; the thread returning as a verdict of relief written in light.

Double portrait of warning: two fine house-keys lying outside two arks of safety, one before rising water, one before falling fire; both doors stand open, unentered.

Portrait of wisdom: an old shade tree over a low bench where a scroll of counsel lies open toward a small pair of child's sandals; a mustard seed on a fine balance; all the sea rendered as an inkwell with tree-pens at its shore.

Portrait of the green mystery: a breached ship's plank floating gently; a rebuilt wall with treasure faintly glowing beneath; a fish escaping alive at the meeting of two seas; wherever his steps would be, moss and green springing instead of footprints.

Portrait of the two horizons: a road spanning from a muddy setting-place of the sun to its rising-place; between two mountains, a mighty wall of iron blocks with molten copper seams; behind it, a restless shadow-tide held back.

Group portrait as sanctuary: seven resting alcoves of light within a cave, a loyal dog stretched at the threshold; the sun's path visibly bending to spare the entrance; a minted silver coin from a vanished century lying at the door.

Portrait of the tested king: a river crossing where most cups are full and few are empty; a plain soldier's ark-chest carried by wing-forms containing tranquility; a crown set on merit's stone rather than gold's.

Portrait of the century sleep: a traveler's donkey restored bone by bone beside a basket of food untouched by a hundred years; a ruined town re-roofing itself in the background; a date left sweet across a century.

Double portrait of the first offering: two altars, one accepted with descending light, one cold; a raven scratching the earth to teach the first burial; a red stain on the ground blooming into a warning lily.

Portrait of the running witness: a lantern carried at a run from the far edge of a city toward three messenger-lamps at the gate; after the stones, a garden gate already open for him in the sky.

Portrait of concealed faith: a lamp burning inside a lattice cabinet in a hall of dark colossal statues; its light escaping through the pattern in protected threads.

Portrait of the named companion: a simple freedman's cloak hung with honor beside a family tree redrawn in light; a letter of adoption dissolving as a truer bond of brotherhood is written above it.

Portrait of refusal: a figure-shaped absence of scorched smoke declining to bow while rings of light prostrate around the void; a whisper rendered as a thin black thread seeking ears; beneath, an hourglass of respite running until a known day.

Portrait of drowned pride: a colossal empty throne sinking beneath parted-then-closing seas; a tower of baked bricks reaching for heaven and cracking; a body-shaped sarcophagus washed ashore as a sign, gold mask staring at nothing.

Portrait of the builder of vanity: kiln fires and brick stacks assembling a tower that thins into smoke at its top; blueprints for reaching God drawn on burning paper.

Portrait of the swallowed treasury: keys so heavy they bend the strong-beam that carries them; treasure vaults sinking into an opening earth while a single coin of charity, never given, floats un-spent above the crack.

Double portrait of the flame: a rope of twisted palm fibre coiled beside a bundled load of thornwood; two fine cloaks consumed by a flame their wealth cannot ransom; scattered scorched coins.

Portrait of the false maker: a hollow golden calf with bellows-breath lowing through its empty throat; a fistful of glowing footprint-dust stolen from a messenger's trail; an exile's circle drawn around him: touch me not.

Portrait of fallen mass: a giant's empty armor collapsed like a bronze landslide; one small smooth river-stone resting at its brow; a shepherd's sling draped over the hilt of the giant's own sword.

Portrait of outmatched arrogance: two thrones, one claiming to give life and death over a chessboard of prisoners; the sun rising from the east on the horizon, with the challenge to bring it from the west left hanging as an unanswerable dawn.

Portrait of the held flood: a seething tide of shadow pressing against Dhul-Qarnayn's iron wall, licking at its copper seams; a small dated seal on the wall marking the day it will be leveled.

Portrait of the mighty messenger: a single wing of light filling the entire clear horizon; a descent-path of revelation rendered as a ladder of luminous verses (as pure light, no letters) reaching a cave's mouth; strength and nearness, two bow-lengths.

Portrait of provision: wing-forms distributing rain from weighed cloud-vessels onto measured fields; each drop a coin of sustenance landing exactly where written.

Portrait of the grim warden: a vast iron gate whose keeper is only a shadow of authority and a ring of heat-blackened keys; behind the bars, a fire that neither ends nor answers pleas of "let your Lord finish us."

Portrait of the appointed taking: a single extinguished candle still smoking beside an hourglass emptied to the last grain; a soul rendered as a thread of light drawn gently upward through a parting in the ceiling of the world.

Portrait of the two scribes: two elegant pens hovering at either shoulder-height of an empty chair, one writing in gold, one in gray; between them an open two-columned ledger where nothing is missed.

Double portrait of the tested teachers: two suspended figures-of-light rendered only as two inverted flames hanging in a Babylonian well; between them a scroll of dangerous knowledge with its warning seal broken by eager hands below.

Portrait of the breath: a column of pure dawn-colored light standing among ranked wing-forms on the Night of Power; beneath it, clay taking the shape of life as roses bloom from the inanimate.

Portrait of the smokeless flame: translucent fire-wisps gathered at the edge of a recitation's lamplight, some bowing toward it, some recoiling; behind them a sky of shooting-star sentries sealing the old listening posts.

A noble she-camel, painted in full: drinking at a spring that splits living rock, garlanded by no one, owned by God; her allotted day marked by a golden sun-disc; rose-carved cliffs behind.

The crested hoopoe in proud profile, a sealed royal letter in its beak, crest fanned like a crown it earned by knowledge; a map of Sheba's sun-temple sketched in its eye's reflection.

A single ant raised on a pebble-pulpit before the descending shadow of oncoming banners, her warning rendered as rings of sound sheltering the colony streaming into their catacombs.

The great fish descending through three darknesses of sea, night and belly; within its silhouette a pearl of prayer glowing; above, the moonlit surface it will breach in mercy.

A loyal hound stretched with forepaws crossed at a cave's glowing threshold, three centuries of sunrises arcing over his unaging sleep; his collar a simple cord of faithfulness.

A black raven with intelligent eye scratching the first grave into soft earth, teaching what no one yet knew; a lily sprouting where the lesson took root.

The golden heifer bright in color, pleasing to beholders, neither old nor young, unyoked and unblemished, standing in exasperated glory after every question has been asked; a field never plowed behind her.

The hollow idol-calf in cold contrast: seams showing, throat open to the wind that gives it a false low; melted jewelry pooled at its hooves; its shadow cast thin and empty.

A great war elephant kneeling in gentle refusal before the distant radiant House, armor and war-drapery slack; above, the first wave of small birds darkening the sky's corner.

Flights of small dark birds in successive waves, each carrying a baked-clay stone in beak and claws; below, an army dissolving into chewed straw; the composition all motion and consequence.

A wolf sitting innocent under a moon, muzzle clean, eyes clear; before it a blue shirt bearing no tooth-mark, its false blood glowing dim; the accused acquitted by evidence.

The staff-serpent mid-transformation: cedar grain becoming scales along its length, one end still wood, the other a living cobra swallowing the magicians' rope-illusions like threads of smoke.

The small gray spider at her fresh web across a cave mouth, each strand strung with dawn dew like pearls; the frailest of houses made, for one night, the strongest wall in Arabia.

A honeybee in luminous close portrait on a mountain blossom, her flight-path home rendered as an inspired golden thread; comb-hexagons of amber light; healing gathered in her burden.

A mosquito poised enormous and unashamed in the frame's center, wings iridescent lapis; beneath it, tiny scoffing palaces it outweighs in meaning; God does not shy from the smallest example.

A single fly hovering above a golden idol's open hand, carrying off a grain of offered incense the idol can never retrieve; the idol's gilded fingers forever too slow.

A donkey mid-restoration: half whitened bones, half living flesh clothed anew before the viewer's eye; beside it a basket of figs and juice untouched by its hundred-year wait.

Noble war-horses of the evening review, coats of lapis-black and gold, manes combed by wind, standing in the low sun that almost stole the remembrance; affection and renunciation in one frame.

The great ransom ram descending a stair of light toward the altar stone, horns spiraled like calligraphy of mercy (pure form, no letters), wool bright as clouds; the unused blade below already rusting into peace.

The smallest truth-teller: a termite at the base of a mighty staff on which a great sleeping kingdom leans, its patient work about to reveal what the jinn could not see; grain by grain, the hidden made known.

The final sign as creature: a form assembled of earth itself, hide of dust and strata, rising from a cracked plain at dusk to address a heedless age; neither monstrous nor gentle, only inevitable.