The First: This six months one bushel (kile) [3] of wheat, consisting of thirty-six loaves of bread, has sufficed me. There is still some left, it is not finished. How much longer [4] it will last, I do not know.

The Second:  This blessed  month  of Ramadan  I was given food by only two houses, and both of them made me ill. I understood that I am prohibited from eating other people’s food. The rest of the time, in the whole of Ramadan, three loaves of bread  and one  okka[5]   of  rice  were  enough  for  me,  as  was  witnessed  and  told by Abdullah Çavuş, the owner of a blessed house and a loyal friend who saw my economizing. In fact, the rice was finished two weeks after the end of Ramadan.

The Third: For three months on the mountain one kıyye[6]  of butter was enough for me and my guests, eating it every day together with bread. On one occasion even I had a blessed visitor called Süleyman. Both his bread and my bread were about to be finished.  It was Wednesday.  I told him to go and get some more. For two hours’ distance on every side of us there was no one from whom he could have got any. He said that he wanted to stay with me on the mountain on Thursday night so that we could pray together. I declared: “Our reliance is on God,” and told him to stay. Later, although it had no connection with this and there was no reason for it, we both began walking till we reached the top of the mountain. There was a little water in the ewer, and we had a small piece of sugar and some tea. I told him: “Brother! Make some tea!” He set about making it and I sat down under a cedar-tree overlooking a deep ravine. I thought regretfully to myself: we have a bit of mouldy bread which will only just be enough for us this evening. What shall we do for two days and what shall I say to this ingenuous man? While thinking this, I suddenly turned my head involuntarily and I saw a huge loaf of bread on the cedar-tree in among the branches; it was facing us. I exclaimed: “Süleyman! Good news! Almighty God has sent us food.” We took the bread, and looking at it saw that no bird or wild animal had touched it. And for twenty or thirty days no one at all had climbed to the top of that mountain. The bread was sufficient for us for the two days. While we were eating and it was about to be finished, righteous Süleyman who had been the most loyal of loyal friends for four years, suddenly appeared from below with more bread.

The Fourth: I bought this sack coat I’m wearing seven years ago second-hand.

In five years I have spent only four and a half liras on clothes, underwear, slippers, and stockings. Frugality and divine mercy and the resulting plenty have sufficed me.

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[3] 36.5 lbs. (Tr.)

[4] It lasted a year.

[5] About 2.8 lbs. or 1,300 grammes.

[6] About 2.8 lbs.