M1:1578 — این عجب بلبل که بگشاید دهان / تا خورد او خار را با گلستان

This couplet concludes a short, intense passage where the speaker, a mystic lover, declares their love for both God's gentleness (luṭf) and His severity (qahr). The preceding lines establish this paradox: "How wondrous, I am a lover of these two opposites!" (M1:1576).

The nightingale is a classic symbol of the lover, and the rose (or rose garden) symbolizes the Beloved. Normally, the nightingale seeks only the rose. Rumi presents a "wondrous nightingale" (ʿajab bulbul), one whose love is so total that it doesn't just tolerate the painful thorns to get to the sweet rose; it consumes them together, as an inseparable package. The thorn is no longer an obstacle to be avoided but an integral part of the experience of the Beloved, accepted and even welcomed.

In the next line (M1:1579), Rumi immediately intensifies this image, saying this is no mere nightingale but a "fiery sea-dragon" for whom all unpleasant things become pleasant through love. The point is that for the perfected lover, the distinction between divine wrath and grace collapses; both are simply expressions of the one Beloved, and therefore both are a source of joy.