On the Lote-Tree of the Boundary (Sidrat al-Muntahā)

Know that the Lote-Tree of the Boundary is the end of the place-rank that the creature reaches in its journey to God (exalted is He).

And beyond it is only the place-rank that belongs to the Real (exalted is He) alone; no creature has a footing there, and reaching what is beyond the Lote-Tree of the Boundary is not possible.

Because the creature there is ground away and effaced, crushed and obliterated, joined to sheer non-existence; it has no existence in what is beyond the Lote-Tree.

And to that is the pointing in the saying of Jibrīl (peace be upon him) to the Prophet (peace be upon him): "Had I advanced a handspan, I would have been burnt" -- and "had" (law) is a particle of impossibility, so the advancing is impossible.

And the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace) reported that he found there a lote-tree whose leaves were like the ears of elephants. One ought to believe in that absolutely, by reason of his reporting it of himself; so it is possible that the hadith is to be interpreted [allegorically], which is what we found in our [own] ascent;

and it is possible that it is upon its outward [literal] sense, so that he found, in his imaginal loci of disclosure, his dwellings, and his divine vistas, a sensory lote-tree [present] to his imagination, witnessed by the eye of his perfection -- so that the verified unveiling, form and meaning, might be gathered for him; thus in all that he reported he found in his ascent.

For we believe in what he said absolutely, even if we found in what the unveiling gave us [something] restricted, because our ascent is not like his ascent.

So we take from his hadith the understanding of what the unveiling gave us, and we believe that he has, beyond that, what our knowledge does not reach. And what the unveiling gave us in this hadith

is that what is intended by the lote-tree is faith (al-īmān). He said: "Whoever fills his belly with the nabq [lote-fruit], God fills his heart with faith."

And its having leaves like the ears of elephants is a striking of a likeness for the greatness of that faith and its strength; and the hanging-down of each of its leaves into each of the houses of the Garden is an expression for the faith of the owner of that house.

And know that we found the Lote-Tree established with eight Presences (ḥaḍarāt) in it, in each Presence of the high vistas what cannot be enumerated; those vistas vary according to the tastings of the people of those Presences.

As for the station (al-maqām):

it is the appearing of the Real in His loci of manifestation, and that is an expression for His self-disclosure in what belongs to Him of the True realities and the created meanings.

The first Presence:

He discloses Himself in it by His Name the Outward (al-Ẓāhir), from the standpoint of the inward of the servant.

The second Presence:

the Real discloses Himself in it by His Name the Inward (al-Bāṭin), from the standpoint of the outward of the servant.

The third Presence:

the Real discloses Himself in it by His Name "Allāh," from the standpoint of the spirit of the servant.

The fourth Presence:

the Real discloses Himself in it by the attribute of the Lord (al-Rabb), from the standpoint of the soul of the servant.

The fifth Presence:

it is the self-disclosure of the rank, which is the appearing of the All-Merciful (al-Raḥmān) in the intellect of the servant,

The sixth Presence:

the Real discloses Himself in it from the standpoint of the illusion-faculty (wahm) of the servant.

The seventh Presence:

the knowledge of the Ipseity (al-huwiyya): the Real discloses Himself in it from the standpoint of the intention of the name of the servant.

The eighth Presence:

the knowledge of the Essence from the absoluteness of the servant: the Real discloses Himself in this station by His perfection in the outward of the human frame and its inward -- inward by inward, outward by outward, ipseity by ipseity, I-ness by I-ness; and it is the highest of the Presences, and beyond it is only the Oneness (al-aḥadiyya).

And the creation has no field in it, because it is of the pure Real, and it is of the special properties of the Essence, the Necessary of Existence.

So when something of that is realized for the Perfect [Human], we say it is a divine self-disclosure [granted] to him by it; his creation has no field in it, so that is not attributed to the creation, but it belongs to the Real.

And from here the people of God have forbidden [ascribing] the self-disclosure of the Oneness to the creation; and the exposition of the Oneness has [already] preceded. And God is the granter of success to what is right.