Wherefore, the lovers of the face of the Beloved have said:  “O Thou, the One Whose Essence alone showeth the way to His Essence, and Who is sanctified above any likeness to His creatures."(42) How can utter nothingness gallop its steed in the field of preexistence, or a fleeting shadow reach to the everlasting sun?  The Friend(43) hath said, “But for Thee, we had not known Thee,” and the Beloved(44) hath said, “nor attained Thy presence.”

Yea, these mentionings that have been made of the grades of knowledge relate to the knowledge of the Manifestations of that Sun of Reality, which casteth Its light upon the Mirrors.  And the splendor of that light is in the hearts, yet it is hidden under the veilings of sense and the conditions of this earth, even as a candle within a lantern of iron, and only when the lantern is removed doth the light of the candle shine out.

In like manner, when thou strippest the wrappings of illusion from off thine heart, the lights of oneness will be made manifest.

Then it is clear that even for the rays there is neither entrance nor exit—­how much less for that Essence of Being and that longed-for Mystery.  O My Brother, journey upon these planes in the spirit of search, not in blind imitation.  A true wayfarer will not be kept back by the bludgeon of words nor debarred by the warning of allusions.

    How shall a curtain part the lover and the loved one? 
    Not Alexander’s wall can separate them!(45)

Secrets are many, but strangers are myriad.  Volumes will not suffice to hold the mystery of the Beloved One, nor can it be exhausted in these pages, although it be no more than a word, no more than a sign.  “Knowledge is a single point, but the ignorant have multiplied it."(46)

On this same basis, ponder likewise the differences among the worlds.  Although the divine worlds be never ending, yet some refer to them as four:  The world of time (zaman), which is the one that hath both a beginning and an end; the world of duration (dahr), which hath a beginning, but whose end is not revealed; the world of perpetuity (sarmad), whose beginning is not to be seen but which is known to have an end; and the world of eternity (azal), neither a beginning nor an end of which is visible.  Although there are many differing statements as to these points, to recount them in detail would result in weariness.  Thus, some have said that the world of perpetuity hath neither beginning nor end, and have named the world of eternity as the invisible, impregnable Empyrean.  Others have called these the worlds of the Heavenly Court (Lahut), of the Empyrean Heaven (Jabarut), of the Kingdom of the Angels (Malakut), and of the mortal world (Nasut).

The journeys in the pathway of love are reckoned as four:  From the creatures to the True One; from the True One to the creatures; from the creatures to the creatures; from the True One to the True One.