One day Hasan AlBasri saw Rabia near a lake.
He threw his prayer rug on top of the water and said:
“Rabia come! Let us pray two rakat here.”
She replied:
“Hasan, when you are showing off your spiritual goods
in the worldly market, it should be things which your
fellow men cannot display.”
She then threw her prayer rug into the air and flew
up onto it saying:
“Come up here, Hasan, where people can see us.”
Then she said:
“Hasan, what you did, fish can do,
and what I did, flies can do.
But the real business is outside these tricks.
One must apply oneself to the real business.”