We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go

Always a little further; it may be

Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow

Across that angry or that glimmering sea

White on a throne or guarded in a cave

There lies a prophet who can understand

Why men were born: but surely we are brave,

Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

 

These evocative lines have become synonymous with the Special Air Service (SAS). But they first originated in the words of the play HASSAN – The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and how he came to make the Golden Journey to Samarkand by James Elroy Flecker (1884–1915).