From Sufism's Sacred Fihi ma Fihi: Discourses of Rumi, Discourse 10, Part 2 of 2

And so it became known that it was not He who was speaking. God was speaking. God is wholly free of form and words. Its speech is beyond letters and voice. Yet, It delivers Its message by any letters and voice and tongue It desires. People have carved the figures of men, women and birds of stone along the banks of pools on the highways and in the caravansaries (inns for caravans), and through the mouths of those statues water pours into the pool. Anyone who any sense knows that this water does not begin in the mouth of a stone bird, it comes from some other source. If you want to get to know people, engage them in speech. By their words you will know them.