After journeying through the planes of pure contentment, the traveler cometh to

The Valley of Wonderment

and is tossed in the oceans of grandeur, and at every moment his wonder groweth.  Now he seeth the shape of wealth as poverty itself, and the essence of freedom as sheer impotence.  Now is he struck dumb with the beauty of the All-Glorious; again is he wearied out with his own life.  How many a mystic tree hath this whirlwind of wonderment snatched by the roots, how many a soul hath it exhausted.  For in this Valley the traveler is flung into confusion, albeit, in the eye of him who hath attained, such marvels are esteemed and well beloved.  At every moment he beholdeth a wondrous world, a new creation, and goeth from astonishment to astonishment, and is lost in awe at the works of the Lord of Oneness.

Indeed, O Brother, if we ponder each created thing, we shall witness a myriad perfect wisdoms and learn a myriad new and wondrous truths.  One of the created phenomena is the dream.  Behold how many secrets are deposited therein, how many wisdoms treasured up, how many worlds concealed.  Observe, how thou art asleep in a dwelling, and its doors are barred; on a sudden thou findest thyself in a far-off city, which thou enterest without moving thy feet or wearying thy body; without using thine eyes, thou seest; without taxing thine ears, thou hearest; without a tongue, thou speakest.  And perchance when ten years are gone, thou wilt witness in the outer world the very things thou hast dreamed tonight.

Now there are many wisdoms to ponder in the dream, which none but the people of this Valley can comprehend in their true elements.  First, what is this world, where without eye and ear and hand and tongue a man puts all of these to use?  Second, how is it that in the outer world thou seest today the effect of a dream, when thou didst vision it in the world of sleep some ten years past?  Consider the difference between these two worlds and the mysteries which they conceal, that thou mayest attain to divine confirmations and heavenly discoveries and enter the regions of holiness.

God, the Exalted, hath placed these signs in men, to the end that philosophers may not deny the mysteries of the life beyond nor belittle that which hath been promised them.  For some hold to reason and deny whatever the reason comprehendeth not, and yet weak minds can never grasp the matters which we have related, but only the Supreme, Divine Intelligence can comprehend them: 

    How can feeble reason encompass the Qur’an,
    Or the spider snare a phoenix in his web?(58)

All these states are to be witnessed in the Valley of Wonderment, and the traveler at every moment seeketh for more, and is not wearied.  Thus the Lord of the First and the Last in setting forth the grades of contemplation, and expressing wonderment hath said:  “O Lord, increase my astonishment at Thee!”