On the Seven Heavens and what is above them, the Seven Earths and what is beneath them, the Seven Seas and the marvels and wonders within them, and the kinds of creatures that dwell in them

Know -- may God reinforce you with a spirit from Him -- that God (exalted is He) was, before He created the creation, in Himself,

and the existents were consumed [/effaced] in Him, and He had no appearing in anything of existence; and that is the Hidden Treasure-ness (al-kanziyya al-makhfiyya).

And the Prophet (upon him be peace) expressed it by "the Cloud (al-ʿamāʾ), above which is no air and beneath which is no air."

because the Reality of realities (ḥaqīqat al-ḥaqāʾiq), in its existence, has no particular connection to any relation -- neither to what is higher nor to what is lower; and it is the White Ruby (al-yāqūta al-bayḍāʾ) concerning which the hadith has come,

that the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) was, before He created the creation, in a White Ruby -- the hadith.

So when the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) willed the bringing-into-being of this world, He looked upon the Reality of realities -- and, if you wish, you may say, upon the White Ruby, which is the root of existence -- with the look of perfection; so it melted and became water.

And for this reason there is, in existence, nothing that bears the perfection of the appearing of the Real (exalted is He) except [the water] alone -- because the Reality of realities, which is the root, did not bear that except in [the state of] inwardness; so when [the perfection] appeared upon it, it melted because of that.

Then He looked upon it with the look of grandeur, so it surged because of that, as the winds make the sea surge; and its densities burst open, one into another, as the foam bursts forth from the sea.

So God created, from that which had burst forth, the seven layers of the earth; then He created the dwellers of each layer from the kind of its earth. Then the subtleties of that water rose, as the vapor rises from the seas, and God (exalted is He) split them open [into] seven heavens.

And He created the angels of each heaven from its kind. Then God made that water seven seas encompassing the world. So this is the root of all existence.

Then the Real (exalted is He) -- just as He was, in pre-eternity, present in the Cloud, which He expressed as the Reality of realities, the Treasure, and the White Ruby --

is likewise now present in what He created from that Ruby -- without indwelling (ḥulūl) and without mixing; so He is self-disclosed in the parts of the atoms of the world, without multiplicity, without conjunction, and without separation; so He is self-disclosed in all of them, because He (glory be to Him, exalted is He) is upon what He was upon.

And He was in the Cloud, and He was in the White Ruby; and all this existence is that Ruby and that Cloud. And had the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) not been self-disclosed in all of existence, He (glory be to Him) would have changed from what He is upon -- and far be He from that.

So the change occurred only in the disclosure-site (al-majlā), which is the White Ruby -- not in the Self-Disclosing One (glory be to Him, exalted is He); so He, after His appearing in His creatures, remains upon His Treasure-ness in the inmost Cloud. So ponder. And we have already mentioned the affair of the Cloud and the Reality of realities clearly; this is the time to mention the things existing in the Reality of realities. So the first that we mention is the seven heavens.

Know that this heaven observed by us is not the heaven of this world (samāʾ al-dunyā); neither is its color its color, nor its description its description.

And this which we see is the vapor rising, by the rule of nature, from the dryness of the earth and the moisture of the water, [which] the heat of the sun has raised into the air; so it has filled the empty atmosphere that is between the earth and the heaven of this world.

And for this reason we see it at times blue, at times grayish-white, and at times dust-colored -- all of that according to the rule of the vapor rising from the earth,

and according to the measure of the falling of the radiance among those vapors. And it [the atmosphere], by its conjunction with the heaven of this world, is called the heaven of this world itself.

So the gaze does not fall upon it [the true heaven], by reason of the intensity of [its] remoteness and subtlety; and it is, moreover, more intensely white than milk.

And it has come in the hadith that between the heaven of this world and the earth is a journey of five hundred years; and by agreement, the gaze does not traverse a journey of five hundred years.

So it has become clear that what is seen by us is not the heaven itself; and were it not that the stars cast their rays to the earth, it [the heaven] would not be witnessed nor seen.

And how many a shining star is in the heavens whose ray does not fall to the earth, so that we do not see it, by reason of its remoteness and subtlety -- but the people of unveiling see it and give expression to it for the people of the earth, so making them understand it.

Know that God (exalted is He) created all the provisions and the various sustenances in four days, and placed them between the heaven and the earth, stored in the heart of four spheres: the first sphere, the sphere of heat; the second, of dryness; the third, of cold; the fourth, of moisture. And this is the meaning of His saying (exalted is He): "And He apportioned in it its sustenances, in four days, equally, for the seekers" (41:10, Fuṣṣilat) -- meaning, by the rule of equalizing, in accordance with the essential request; because the realities request, by their very essences, what they require. Whenever a reality of the realities of the creatures requires something, it descends to it from those storehouses in accordance with its request. And this is the meaning of His saying (exalted is He): "And there is nothing whose storehouses are not with Us, and We send it down only in a known measure" (15:21, al-Ḥijr).

Then He set the angels of sending-down, charged with conveying each provision to the one it is provided for, in the seven heavens; then He set, in each heaven, an angel who rules over the angels of provisions therein, called "the angel of events" (malak al-ḥawādith); and He gave to that angel the spirituality of the planet existing in that heaven. So no angel of the angels of provisions descends from a heaven except by the permission of that angel created upon the spirituality of the planet of that heaven. The planet of the heaven of this world is the Moon; the planet of the second heaven, Mercury; of the third, Venus; of the fourth, the Sun; of the fifth, Mars; of the sixth, Jupiter; of the seventh, Saturn. As for the heaven of this world, it is more intensely white than silver; God (exalted is He) created it from the reality of the spirit, that its relation to the earth might be the relation of the spirit to the body.

And likewise He set the sphere of the Moon in it, because He (exalted is He) made the Moon the locus of manifestation of His Name "the Living" (al-Ḥayy), and turned its sphere in the heaven of the zodiacal signs; in it is the life of existence, and upon it is the orbit of the supposed and the witnessed. Then He made the sphere of the lunar planet the one in charge of the governance of the earth,

just as the spirit is the one that takes charge of the governance of the body. So had God (exalted is He) not created the heaven of this world from the reality of the spirit, Wisdom would not have required the existence of the animal from the earth; rather, it [the earth] would have been the locus of the inanimate things.

Then God (exalted is He) settled Adam in this heaven, because Adam is the spirit of the worldly world -- since by him God looked upon the existents and had mercy upon them, and gave them life by the life of Adam in it.

So the worldly world has not ceased to be alive as long as this human species is in it; and when it moves on from it, this world perishes and one part of it is joined to another -- as when the spirit of the animal goes forth from its body, so that the body is ruined and one part of it is joined to another.

God adorned this heaven with the adornment of all the stars, just as He adorned the spirit with all that the human frame carries of the outward subtleties -- such as the five senses -- and of the inward subtleties -- such as the seven faculties, which are the intellect (al-ʿaql), the aspiration (al-himma), the understanding (al-fahm), the estimation (al-wahm), the heart (al-qalb), the cogitation (al-fikr), and the imagination (al-khayāl).

So, just as the stars of the heaven of this world are missiles against the devils, likewise these faculties -- when the human adjudges them sound -- the devils of the [stray] thoughts are warded off from them.

So his inward is guarded by these faculties, as the heaven of this world is guarded by the piercing stars. And the angels of this heaven are simple [/bare] spirits, as long as they are glorifying God (exalted is He) in it.

So when they descend from it, for what the angel charged with the sending-down of the angels of the heaven of this world commands them, they take shape in the configuration of the matter for which they descend, so that they become the spirituality of that thing with which they are charged; and they continue to drive it to the locus that God (exalted is He) has commanded them [to drive it to].

So if it is a provision, it drives it to the one it is provided for; and if it is a decreed matter, it drives it to the one God has decreed it upon, whether good or evil; then it glorifies God (exalted is He) in the sphere of this heaven, and never descends after it in [any] matter. God made the angel named Ismāʿīl the ruler over all the angels of this heaven, and he is the spirituality of the Moon.

So when God commands, concerning that, with a command, and the angel carries out that command, [the chief angel] seats it upon thrones called "the dais of forms" (minaṣṣat al-ṣuwar); so it sits upon it, taking shape in the form of the matter with which it descended, and never returns to its [original] simplicity.

Rather, it remains upon what it is upon, of taking-shape and the particular bodily form-taking, worshipping God (exalted is He) in existence.

Because the spirits, when they take shape in a form of the forms, there is no way for that form to be doffed from them, [such] that they return to the original simplicity -- this is impossible.

But it is within their power to take form in every form, [while] not parting from the original form, which has, for them, a ruling from God (exalted is He). And that spiritual form is the Words of God (exalted is He) that subsist [/sustain] the existents, as the spirit subsists the body.

So when they come forth from the knowledge-obscurity to the entity-clarity, they remain subsisting by their [own] essences in existence. So all the bodies of the world, of the creatures -- of mineral, plant, animals, words, and other than that --

have spirits subsisting in them, in the form of what their bodies were upon; so that, when the body passes away, the spirit remains, glorifying God (glory be to Him, exalted is He), abiding by the Real's making-it-abide -- because the Real did not create the spirits for annihilation, but rather created them for abiding.

So the one granted unveiling (al-mukāshif), when he wills the unveiling of a matter of the matters of existence, those spirits -- which are the Words of God (exalted is He) -- disclose themselves to him; so he knows them by their entities, their names, and their attributes.

For every spirit of the spirits of existence is self-disclosed in the garments [in which] were its attributes, its descriptions, and its character-traits, upon the body it used to govern -- such as the animal, the mineral, the plant, the composite, and the simple; or upon the form whose meaning the spirit was -- such as words, deeds, accidents, intentions, and the like -- when it has come forth from the knowledge-world to the entity-world. But when it remains upon its state in the knowledge-world, he sees it likewise as a form subsisting, upon which are the kinds of the [investiture-]robes of what shall be deeds and attributes; so the locus of manifestation here is that which is the body or the form,

but he knows that there is, then, no existence for it except by way of him [the knower]; so he takes from it what he wills of [the] known, not by way of its [own] aspect, but by way of his aspect -- yet according to what its realities require -- unlike [the case] were he to see it after its coming-forth into the entity-world, for [then] he knows that its existence is, at that point, by way of its [own] aspect; so he speaks to it, and it answers him with the kinds of what it contains of sciences and realities.

And in this witnessing is the gathering of the prophets and the friends [of God], one with another. I abode in it, in Zabīd, in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, in the year eight hundred of the Prophetic Hijra; and I saw all the messengers and the prophets (the blessings of God and His peace be upon them all), and the friends, and the High and the brought-near angels, and the angels of subjugation; and I saw the spirituality of all the existents.

And there was unveiled to me the realities of things as they are, from pre-eternity to post-eternity; and I was realized in divine sciences that the cosmos has no room for us to mention in it; and in this witnessing was what was. So suppose [it] good, and ask not about the good. The diver of exposition has dived with us into the sea of this clarification, until the [divine] decree compelled [us] to the bringing-forth of these pearls; so let us be content, of that, with what has already appeared in it, of what its disclosure had never occurred to [anyone]; and let us return to what we are about, of the mention of the heaven of this world.

Know that God (exalted is He) created the circuit of the sphere of the heaven of this world [to be] a journey of eleven thousand years -- and it is the smallest of the spheres of the heavens in circuit; so the Moon traverses the whole circuit of this sphere in twenty-four equal -- I mean, upright -- hours.

So it traverses, in each hour, a journey of four thousand five hundred years. Then the Moon has a [smaller] sphere within the [main] sphere; and likewise every planet has a small sphere, revolving by itself within the large sphere. So the greatest sphere is slow of circuit, and that small sphere is swift of circuit.

And what you see of the retrograde [hiding] of the planets -- which is their [apparent] going-back -- is [due] to the difference of the circuit of their [small] sphere within the revolution of the large sphere; so it outstrips it in the circuit, and the person reckons it to be going back, while it has not gone back -- for had it gone back, the whole world would have been ruined.

And know that the Moon is a dull body, having no radiance in itself, of itself; rather, it faces the Sun with half [of itself], taking from it the light, so that half of it is ever illumined, and the half that does not face the Sun is dark; and for this reason the light of the Moon is never seen except from the direction of the Sun -- unlike the rest of the wandering planets, for each planet of them faces the light of the Sun in all [of itself].

Their likeness is the likeness of the transparent crystal: when the light falls into it, it pervades its outward and its inward -- unlike the Moon, for it is like the polished metal ball, which accepts the light only in facing the Sun; and for this reason its light, [as seen] on the earth, decreases and increases, unlike the rest of the planets.

And know that the heavens, one encompasses another; so the greatest of them is the heaven of Saturn, and the smallest of them the heaven of the Moon -- and this is its diagram.

And every sphere is tangent to its heaven from beneath it; and it [the sphere] is a meaning-matter, because it is a name for the direction of the revolution of the planet in its apogee.

And the planet is a name for the transparent, luminous body of each heaven. And were we to undertake the exposition of the minutes, the seconds, the degrees, the [astrological] lodgings, the direction, and the course -- or were we to expound the properties of that and their requisites -- we would need many volumes.

So let us turn away from that, for the thing sought is nothing but the gnosis of God (exalted is He). And we have not mentioned this measure of the outward of things without having intimated beneath it divine secrets, which we have made as the kernel for this husk. And God speaks the truth, and He guides to the way.

As for the second heaven: it is a transparent, subtle substance, and its color is grayish; God (exalted is He) created it from the cogitative reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-fikriyya).

It is, for existence, in the position of the human cogitation; and for this reason it was the locus of the sphere of the Scribe, which is Mercury, whom God (exalted is He) made a locus of manifestation of His Name the All-Powerful (al-Qadīr), and created its heaven from the light of His Name the All-Knowing, the All-Aware (al-ʿAlīm al-Khabīr).

Then God set the angels who reinforce all the people of the crafts in this heaven, and charged over them an angel whom He made the spirituality of this planet. And this heaven has more angels than all the heavens, and from it knowledge descends to the world of beings. And the jinn used to come to the surface of the heaven of this world and hear from it the voices of the angels of the second heaven -- because remoteness does not prevent the spirits from hearing speech,

but [only] when they are in their [own] world; whereas, when they are not in their world, their ruling is the ruling of this world in which they are.

And since the jinn are spirits, while they are in the world of bodies and density, they ascended until they reached toward the spiritual world -- which is the surface of the heaven of this world -- so they heard, by means of that ascent, the speech of the angels of the second heaven, for the absence of a barrier;

but it was not possible for them to hear the third [heaven], for the presence of a barrier. Likewise, the people of each station do not unveil [anything] except what is above them by a single rank; so when the barrier is present and the ranks are multiplied, the lower does not know what is in the higher.

For this reason the jinn used to draw near to the heaven of this world and hear the voices of the angels of the second heaven, to steal a hearing, and return to their associators [/idolaters] and inform them of the unseen things.

But now, when they rise to that locus, the piercing meteor (al-shihāb al-thāqib) descends upon them and burns them -- and it is the Muhammadan light, which unveils, for the people of the dark veils, the density of their origin; so they cannot ascend, by reason of the burning of the wing of the bird of aspiration, and [the jinn] returns [a] loser, dejected.

I saw Noah (upon him be peace) in this heaven, seated upon a couch created from the light of grandeur, among the people of glory and praise; so I greeted him and presented myself before him, and he returned to me the greeting and welcomed me.

And he rose, and I asked him about his cogitative heaven and his secret station; he said: This heaven is the necklace-string of the substance of the gnoses; in it the virgin [insights] of the [divine] cognitions disclose themselves. The angels of this heaven are created from the light of Power.

Nothing takes form in the world of existence without its angels being the ones in charge of the forming of that witnessed [thing]; so they are the fine [agents] of the firm apportioning for the subtle-threads of the form-giving.

Upon them turns the affair of the subduing signs and the manifest miracles; and from them arise the dazzling marvels (karāmāt).

God created in this heaven angels who have no worship except the guiding of the creation to the lights of the Real; they fly with the wings of Power in the heaven of admonition, upon their heads the crowns of lights, studded with the abstruse [gems] of the secrets.

Whoever mounts upon the back of an angel of these angels flies, by its wing, to the seven spheres, and brings down the spiritual forms into the corporeal molds whenever he wishes and however he wishes.

So if he addresses it, it speaks to him; and if he asks it, it informs him. God made the circuit of the sphere of this heaven a journey of thirteen thousand three hundred and thirty-three years and one hundred and twenty days.

Its planet -- which is Mercury -- traverses, in each hour, a journey of five hundred and fifty-five years and one hundred and twenty days; so it traverses its whole sphere in the passing of twenty-four equal hours,

and it traverses the large sphere in the passing of a complete year. And the spirituality of the angel ruling over all the angels of this heaven -- his name is Nūḥāʾīl (upon him be peace). Then I saw in this heaven marvels of the signs of the All-Merciful and wonders of the secrets of the beings, which we have no room to broadcast among the people of this age.

So ponder what we have pointed to, and reflect upon what we have riddled; and from your [own] existence -- not from [anything] outside you -- seek the solution of what we have intimated.

As for the third heaven: its color is yellow, and it is the heaven of Venus; its substance is transparent, and its people are the many-colored in all the attributes.

It was created from the reality of the imagination (al-khayāl) and made the locus of the world of similitude (ʿālam al-mithāl); God made its planet a locus of manifestation of His Name the All-Knowing, and made its sphere a disclosure-site of the power of the Wise Maker. So its angels are created upon every shape of the shapes; in it are marvels and wonders that do not occur to the mind: the impossible is admissible in it, and perhaps the admissible-permitted is impossible in it.

God made the circuit of the sphere of this heaven a journey of fifteen thousand thirty-six years and one hundred and twenty days.

Its planet -- which is Venus -- traverses, in each hour, a journey of six hundred and thirty-one years and eighteen and a third days; so it traverses the sphere in the passing of twenty-four hours, and traverses all the lodgings of the large sphere in a journey of three hundred and twenty-four days.

And the angels of this heaven are under the rule of the angel named Ṣūrāʾīl, who is the spirituality of Venus. And its angels encompass the world, answering whoever of the children of Adam calls upon them.

I saw the angels of this heaven harmonious, but of differing kinds: among them is one whom God has charged with the inspiring of the sleeper -- whether plainly, or by the striking of a similitude that the knowing one comprehends;

and among them one whom God (exalted is He) has charged with the rearing of children and teaching them meanings and sayings; and among them one whom God has charged with the consoling of the care-laden and the gladdening of the grieved;

and among them one whom God has charged with the lonely [/desolate] people and the conversing of those who keep solitude; and among them one whom God (exalted is He) has charged with kindling the fires of love, for the lovers, in the black core of the kernel [of the heart];

and among them one whom God has charged with preserving the form of the beloved, lest it be absent from its anguished lover; and among them one whom God has charged with conveying the messages between the people of the means [/petitions].

I met, in this heaven, with Joseph (upon him be peace); I saw him upon a couch of secrets, unveiling the symbols of the lights, knowing the reality of that upon which the morsels [/draughts] of the [scholars'] ink congealed, realized in the affair of the meanings, having passed beyond the restriction of the water and the vessels.

So I greeted him with the greeting of one coming to him; and he answered and gave the greeting of life, then welcomed me warmly.

So I said to him: My master, I ask you about your saying: "My Lord, You have given me of the kingdom, and taught me of the interpretation of discourses" (12:101, Yūsuf). Which of the two kingdoms do you mean, and the interpretation of which discourses do you allude to? He said: I meant the All-Merciful kingdom deposited in the human subtle-point;

and the interpretation of discourses: the trusts circulating upon the animal tongues.

So I said to him: My master, does not this [which is] deposited in intimation [call for] the robes of clarification and plain declaration?

He said: Know that the Real (exalted is He) has a trust among the servants, which those who speak by it convey to the people of right guidance. I said: How does the Real have a trust, when He is the root of existence in appearing and manifestation? He said: That is His attribute, and this is His affair; that is His ruling, and this is His expression. The trust -- the ignorant one places it in the tongue, and the knowing one carries it in the secret and the heart; and all are in bewilderment about Him, and none but the gnostic has won anything of Him.

I said: And how is that? He said: Know -- may God reinforce you and protect you -- that the Real (exalted is He) made His secrets like the pearls of allusions deposited in the secrets of expressions; so they are cast in the road, circulating upon the tongues of the party. The common one is ignorant of their allusion, and the elect knows what dwells in their expression; so he interprets it according to the requirement, and returns it to where it is approved.

And what is the interpretation of dreams but a trickle from this sea, or a pebble from the boulders of this desert? So I knew what the Truthful One (al-Ṣiddīq) [Joseph] pointed to -- and I was not, before him, ignorant of this realization; then I left him and departed, in "the highest companion, and how excellent the companion."

As for the fourth heaven: it is the most magnificent substance, of the most radiant color, the heaven of the most luminous Sun -- and it is the Pole of the spheres. God (exalted is He) created this heaven from the heart-light (al-nūr al-qalbī).

And He set the Sun in it in the position of the heart for the existent: by it is its flourishing, and from it is its freshness; from it the stars seek their lights, and by it their beacon rises high in the ranks.

God made this solar planet, in this heart-sphere, the locus of manifestation of divinity and the disclosure-site of the diversities of His sanctified, pure, immaculate attributes. So the Sun is a root for all the elemental creatures, just as the Name "Allāh" is [a root] for all the lofty ranks.

Idrīs (upon him be peace) alighted in this precious station, for his knowledge of the heart-reality; so he was distinguished from others in the lofty rank. God made this heaven the descending-place of the lights and the mine of the secrets.

Then the majestic angel named Isrāfīl is the ruler over the angels of this heaven, and it [his rule] is the spirituality of the resplendent Sun.

No lowering is raised in existence, and no expansion or contraction occurs in it, except by the disposing of this angel, whom God made the origin of this sphere; and he is the greatest of the angels in awe, the largest of them in scope, and the strongest of them in resolve (himma).

His [domain extends] from the Lote-Tree of the Boundary to what is beneath the soil; he disposes in all of it, and has power over its noble and its lowly. His dais is by the Footstool, and the origin of this solar sphere; and his world is the heavens and the earth and what is in them of intellect and sense.

Then know that God (exalted is He) made the solar sphere a journey of seventeen thousand and twenty-nine years and sixty days; so it traverses the whole sphere in the passing of twenty-four equal hours, and traverses the large sphere in three hundred and sixty-five days, a quarter of a day, and three minutes. Know that this station, in which is Idrīs (upon him be peace), is a station of the stations of Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace). Do you not see that, when he reached -- on the night of his ascension -- the fourth heaven, he ascended from it to what is above it? So his reaching (upon him be blessing and peace) the Idrīsian level [bears] witness to his realization in the lofty stations by the lordly-served rank; and by his passing beyond it, he witnessed what is higher than it -- until the proclamation of his felicity came forth, with the robe of honor:

"Glory be to Him who made His servant journey by night" (17:1, al-Isrāʾ). So the station of servanthood (al-ʿubūdiyya) is the lofty Praised Station, and it is the towering, impregnable Banner of Praise.

And know that God (exalted is He) made all of existence symbolized in the disk of the Sun; the natural faculties bring it forth into existence little by little, by the command of God (exalted is He).

So the Sun is the point of the secrets and the circle of the lights. The most of the prophets, the people of firm-establishment, are in the circle of this firm sphere -- such as Jesus, Solomon, David, Idrīs, [St] George (Jirjīs), and others whose number is many and whose span is long.

All of them are alighting in this manifest abode, and dwelling in this lofty station. And God speaks the truth, and He guides to the way, to the even path.

As for the fifth heaven: it is the heaven of the planet named Bahrām [Mars], which is the locus of manifestation of the divine grandeur and vengeance. John [the Baptist] (Yaḥyā, upon him be peace) alighted in it, for his witnessing of the grandeur and the Omnipotence, and his observing of the might and the Sovereignty.

And for this reason he never inclined toward a slip [/sin] -- whereas there is none of them [the prophets] but one who inclined [toward something], or who came with a [human] shortcoming. Its heaven is created from the light of estimation (al-wahm), and its color is red like blood; and the angels of this heaven -- God (exalted is He) created them as mirrors for perfection and loci of manifestation for majesty.

By them God is worshipped in this existence, and by them the people of [obedient] imitation rendered submission to the Real by prostration. God made the worship of these angels the bringing-near of the distant and the finding [/bringing-into-being] of the lost.

So among them is one whose worship is the founding of the bases of faith in the heart and the inmost; among them one whose worship is the driving-off of the unbelievers from the world of the secrets; and among them one whose worship is the healing of the sick and the mending of the crushed fracture;

and among them one who was created for the taking of the spirits, so that he takes [them] by the permission of the ruler, with no fault [incurred]. And the deep-rooted ruler of this heaven is the angel named ʿAzrāʾīl,

and he is the spirituality of Mars, the possessor of vengeance and rebuke. God (exalted is He) made the origin of this angel this heaven, and his dais by the Highest Pen.

No angel descends to the earth for vengeance, nor for the taking of spirits, nor for the spreading of [any] order, except by the command of this angel, who is the spirituality of Bahrām [Mars].

And know that God (exalted is He) made the circuit of this heaven a journey of nineteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-three years and one hundred and twenty days.

This planet traverses, of it, in each equal hour, a journey of eight hundred and twenty-six years and one hundred and forty days;

so it traverses the whole sphere in the passing of twenty-four hours, and traverses the large sphere in the passing of five hundred and forty days, approximately.

And its spirituality is what reinforces the masters of swords and vengeance; and it is what is charged with the aid of whomever God wills to aid, of the people of [governing] rein [/authority].

As for the sixth heaven: its origin is from the light of aspiration (al-himma); it is a transparent, spiritual substance, blue of color, and its planet is the locus of manifestation of the Self-Subsisting (al-Qayyūmiyya) and the vista of perpetuity -- the possessor of the reinforcing light named Jupiter (al-Mushtarī). I saw Moses (upon him be peace) firmly established in this station, placing his foot upon the surface of this heaven, grasping with his right [hand] the trunk of the Lote-Tree of the Boundary, intoxicated by the wine of the self-disclosure of lordship, bewildered by the might of divinity.

The shapes of the beings had been imprinted in the mirror of his knowledge, and the lordship of the Requiting Sovereign had disclosed itself in his I-ness; his vista terrifies the beholder, and his affair disquiets the comer and the goer. So I stood, observing courtesy, before him, and greeted [him] with the realization of his rank over him; so he raised his head from the intoxication of pre-eternity, welcomed me, and bade me come.

So I said to him: My master, the one who speaks rightly, truthful in address [the Prophet], has informed [us] that there came forth to you, from that Presence, the robe of honor of "You shall not see Me"; yet this state of yours is not the state of the people of the veil. So inform me of the reality of this wondrous matter.

He said: Know that, when I went forth from the Egypt of my [lower] earth to the reality of my [religious] obligation, and was called from the Mount (Ṭūr) of my heart, by the tongue of my Lord, from the side of the tree of oneness, in the holy valley, by the lights of pre-eternity: "Truly I am God; there is no god but I; so worship Me" (20:14, Ṭā Hā) -- so when I worshipped Him as He commanded in [all] things, and praised Him with what He merits of the Attributes and the Names, the lights of lordship disclosed themselves to me, so that He took me from myself.

So I sought the abiding in the station of meeting; and it is impossible that the originated [creature] withstand the pre-eternal appearing. So the tongue of my secret called out, interpreting that immense matter:

So I said: "My Lord, show me, that I may look upon You" (7:143, al-Aʿrāf) -- that I may enter, by my I-ness, into the Presence of Holiness upon You. So I heard the answer from that Presence: "You shall not see Me; but look at the mountain" -- and it is your essence, created from My light in pre-eternity -- "if it remains in its place," after the Pre-eternal has made manifest His sovereignty, "then you shall see Me." So when his Lord disclosed Himself to the mountain, and the reality of pre-eternity drew me, and the Pre-eternal appeared upon the originated, "He made it crumble to dust, and Moses fell down" thereby "thunderstruck" -- so there remained, in the Pre-eternal, nothing but the Pre-eternal, and none disclosed Himself with grandeur but the Grand. This, granted that its full [exposition] is not possible, and its delimiting is not admissible.

So His quiddity is not grasped, nor is He seen; and His innermost reality is not known, nor is it apprehended. So when the interpreter of pre-eternity [Moses] looked upon this address, he informed you of it from the Mother of the Book, and interpreted with the truth and what is right. Then I left him and departed, having scooped from his sea what I scooped.

And know that God (exalted is He) made the circuit of the sphere of this heaven a journey of twenty-two thousand and sixty-six years and eight months.

Its planet -- which is Jupiter -- traverses, in it, in each hour, a journey of nine hundred and nineteen years, five months, twenty-seven and a half days;

so it traverses the whole sphere in the passing of twenty-four hours, and traverses the whole large sphere in the passing of twelve years, traversing each year one [zodiacal] sign of the large sphere.

And God (exalted is He) created this heaven from the light of aspiration (al-himma), and made Mīkāʾīl charged over its angels -- and they are the angels of mercy.

God made them the ascents (maʿārij) of the prophets and the stairways of the friends [of God]; God (exalted is He) created them for the conveying of the subtle-threads (al-raqāʾiq) to him for whom the realities require them.

Their constant work is the raising of the lowly and the easing of the difficult, impregnable [thing]; they range through the earth for the sake of raising its people from the darkness of lowliness; so they are the people of expansion (basṭ) and contraction (qabḍ) among the angels.

And they are the ones charged with the conveying of provisions to those provided for, in accordance with [the measure of] concord; God (exalted is He) made them of the people of expansion and favor, so that they are, among the angels, the ones whose call is answered: they do not pray for anyone for anything without its being answered,

and they do not pass by one with an affliction without his being healed and made well. To them he (upon him be blessing and peace) pointed in his saying: "So whoever's saying of 'Āmīn' coincides with the saying of 'Āmīn' of the angels, his prayer is answered and his desire is obtained."

For not every angel's call is answered, nor is every praiser's praise found pleasing.

Then I saw the angels of this heaven created upon all the kinds of animals: among them is one whom God (exalted is He) created in the configuration of the bird, with wings that no counter can confine -- and the worship of this kind is the service of the secrets and the raising of them from the lowliness of darkness to the world of the lights. And among them is one whom God (exalted is He) created in the configuration of the marked [noble] horses -- and the worship of this honored group is the raising of the hearts from the prison of [sensory] witnessing to the expanse of the unseen [realms].

And among them is one whom God (exalted is He) created in the configuration of the noble [riding-]beasts and in the form of the mounts -- whom God (exalted is He) created in the configuration of the mules and the donkeys -- and the worship of this kind is the raising of the lowly, the mending of the broken, and the crossing from the little to the much.

And among them is one whom God (exalted is He) created in the form of the human, and the worship of these is the preserving of the bases of the religions; and among them one created in the character of the simples of the substances and the accidents, and the worship of these is the conveying of health to the diseased bodies.

And among them is one created upon the kinds of grains, waters, and all the foods and drinks, and the worship of these is the conveying of provisions to those they provide for, of all the creatures.

Then I saw in this heaven angels created by the rule of intermixing, blended: half of [one] is of water that has congealed [into] snow -- so neither does the water act in the extinguishing of the fire, nor does the fire change the water from that settled state.

And know that Mīkāʾīl (upon him be peace) is the spirituality of the planet of this heaven, and he is the ruler over all the angels residing in this sphere.

God made his origin this heaven, and his dais at the right of the Lote-Tree of the Boundary. I asked him about the Muhammadan Burāq: was it created from this lofty origin? He said: No, because Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) -- the veils did not thicken upon him, so his origin did not descend below the heaven of light; and that is the origin of the First Intellect and the wellspring of the most excellent Spirit. So his Burāq is from the sphere of this firm station, and his interpreter is Jibrīl, who is the Trustworthy Spirit. As for the prophets other than him, and all the perfected ones of the friends -- their mounts, in the highest journeying, are upon the noble beasts of this heaven; so they ascend upon them from the lowliness of the land of the natures until they pass the seventh sphere; then they have no mount but the Attributes, and no interpreter but the Essence.

As for the seventh heaven: it is the heaven of the honored Saturn (Zuḥal), and its substance is transparent, black like the dark night.

God created it from the light of the First Intellect (al-ʿaql al-awwal), and made it the most excellent abode; so it was colored with blackness, as a pointing to its [hidden] depth and remoteness. And for this reason none knows the First Intellect except every most-perfect knower.

This is the heaven of Kaywān [Saturn], encompassing all the world of beings, the most excellent of the heavens and the highest of the existents; all the fixed stars, in its train, move with a hidden motion in its sphere.

The circuit of its sphere is a journey of twenty-four thousand five hundred years; its planet traverses, in each equal hour, a journey of one thousand and twenty years and ten months,

and it traverses the large sphere in a period of thirty years.

And all the fixed stars that are in it -- each of them has a hidden, slight motion that scarcely becomes apparent; among them is one that traverses each [zodiacal] sign of the sphere in thirty thousand years, and among them one that traverses [it] in more and less.

And by reason of their fineness and their multitude, they are not known, and they have no names with the [astronomical] calculators;

but the people of unveiling know the name of each star, and address it by its name, and ask it about its course; so it answers them and informs them of what it requires in its sphere.

Then this heaven is the first heaven that God (exalted is He) created, encompassing the world of beings; and He created the heavens beneath it after it.

So it is the light of the First Intellect, which is the first of God's creatures in the world of originated things. I saw Abraham (upon him be peace) standing in this heaven, and he has a dais upon which he sits, at the right of the Throne, above the Footstool; and he was reciting the verse: "Praise be to God, who has bestowed upon me, in old age, Ishmael and Isaac" (14:39, Ibrāhīm).

And know that the angels of this heaven are all brought-near ones; and each of the brought-near ones has a station in accordance with the office in which God set him; and there is nothing above him but the Starless Sphere (al-falak al-aṭlas).

And it is the large sphere, whose surface is the highest Footstool; and between the two -- I mean the Starless Sphere and the starred sphere -- are three estimative, conceptual spheres, having no existence except in [the order of] conception, not in [external] entity: the first of them, which is the highest sphere, the sphere of prime-matter (al-hayūlā); the second, the sphere of the [primordial] dust (al-habāʾ); the third, the sphere of the elements, which is the last of them, adjoining the starred sphere. And some of the sages said: then a fourth sphere, which is the sphere of the natures.

And know that the Starless Sphere is the court of the Lote-Tree of the Boundary, and it is beneath the Footstool; and the exposition of the Footstool has [already] preceded.

And the Lote-Tree of the Boundary is inhabited by the Cherubim (al-karūbiyyūn); I saw them in differing configurations, [whose] number none can count but God.

The lights of the self-disclosures have closed in upon them, so that scarcely any of them can move the lid of his eye; among them is one who has fallen upon his face, among them one who has knelt upon his knees -- and he is the most perfect -- among them one who has fallen upon his side, and among them one who has frozen in his standing -- and he is the strongest.

And among them is one bewildered in his ipseity, and among them one snatched away in his I-ness.

And I saw of them a hundred angels set over all of these, in their hands pillars of light, upon each pillar written a name of the Beautiful Names of God;

by them they awe those below them, of the Cherubim, and whoever has reached their rank, of the People of God (exalted is He).

Then I saw seven of this hundred set over them, called "the standing-rank of the Cherubim."

And I saw three set over these seven, called "the people of the ranks and firm-establishment."

And I saw one set over all of them, called ʿAbd Allāh [the servant of God].

And all of these are High Ones (ʿālūn), of those who were not commanded to prostrate to Adam.

And those above them likewise -- the [angel] named the Nūn, and the angel named the Pen, and their like -- are also High Ones; and the rest of the angels of nearness are below them.

And below them are [those] like Jibrīl, Mīkāʾīl, Isrāfīl, ʿAzrāʾīl, and their like.

And I saw in this sphere marvels and wonders that we have no room to expound.

And know that the total of the spheres that God (exalted is He) created in this world is eighteen spheres: the first, the encompassing Throne; the second, the Footstool; the third, the Starless (al-aṭlas), which is the sphere of the Lote-Tree of the Boundary; the fourth, prime-matter (al-hayūlā); the fifth, the dust (al-habāʾ); the sixth, the elements; the seventh, the natures; the eighth, the starred [sphere], which is the sphere of Saturn and is called the sphere of spheres; the ninth, the sphere of Jupiter; the tenth, of Mars; the eleventh, of the Sun; the twelfth, of Venus; the thirteenth, of Mercury; the fourteenth, of the Moon; the fifteenth, the sphere of the ether (al-athīr), which is the sphere of fire; the sixteenth, of air; the seventeenth, of water; the eighteenth, of earth. And the encompassing sea, in which is the Bahmūt -- which is a whale that carries the earth upon its shoulders -- then the sphere of air, then the sphere of fire, then the sphere of the Moon; and it returns ascending as it descended.

Then every existent in the world has a vast sphere, which the one granted unveiling sees, and swims [/glorifies] in it, and knows what it requires; so the spheres cannot be counted, for their multitude. God (exalted is He) said: "Each in an orbit swimming" (21:33, al-Anbiyāʾ).

And know that each one of the spheres of fire, water, and air is upon four layers, and that of earth is upon seven layers; and the exposition of all will come in this chapter. So let us begin with the mention of the earth and its layers -- because God (exalted is He) followed up the mention of the heaven with the earth, so make no separation between them.

As for the first layer of the earth: when God (exalted is He) first created it, it was more intensely white than milk and more fragrant than the scent of musk; then it became dust-colored when Adam (upon him be peace) walked upon it, after he disobeyed God (exalted is He).

And this earth is the earth of the souls; and for this reason the animals inhabit it.

The circuit of the globe of the earth is a journey of one thousand one hundred and sixty-six years and two hundred and forty days. The water has submerged three-quarters of it, by the rule of encompassing; so there remains the [one] quarter from the middle of the earth -- except what adjoins the northern side.

As for the southern side, the whole of it, in its entirety, is submerged under the water, [comprising] half of the earth; then a quarter of it, from the northern side, is under the water.

So there remains only the [one] quarter; and this quarter -- three-quarters of it is ruin [/uninhabited], and there remains only the quarter of the quarter; then this remaining quarter -- the inhabited extent of it is only a journey of twenty-four years, and the rest of it is wildernesses and deserts, populated with the roads, where going and returning is possible.

Alexander reached, of the earth, only this remaining quarter; he traversed its breadth east and west, because his lands were in the west, and his kingdom was in [the land of] Rūm.

So he first took to traversing what adjoined his [own] side, until he reached the inner [/far part] of the earth from it, [and] it brought him to the setting-place of the sun; then he traversed the [opposite] side, which faces it, until he was realized in the appearing of those things, [and] he reached the rising-place of the sun; then he traversed the [other] side -- which is the darknesses -- until he reached Gog and Magog, who are in the [far] side of the earth, their relation to the earth being the relation of the [stray] thoughts to the soul.

Their number is not known, nor their enumeration grasped; the sun has never risen upon their land.

And for this reason weakness has predominated over them, such that they have not been able, in this age, to ruin [/breach] the barrier (al-sadd).

Then he traversed the northern side, until he reached a locus of it in which the sun does not set; and this earth is white, upon what God (exalted is He) created it, [and] it is the dwelling of the Men of the Unseen (rijāl al-ghayb).

And its king is al-Khiḍr (upon him be peace); the people of these lands -- the angels speak to them. Neither Adam nor anyone of those who disobeyed God (exalted is He) reached it; so it remains upon the root of the primordial-nature (al-fiṭra).

And it is near the land of Bulghār; and Bulghār is a town in the land of the non-Arabs (al-ʿAjam) in which the night prayer (ṣalāt al-ʿishāʾ) is not obligatory in the days of winter -- because the twilight of dawn rises before the setting of the twilight of sunset in it.

So the night prayer is not obligatory upon them. And there is no need to set forth the marvels of the earth, since the reports have transmitted of its marvels what needs no [further] mention. So understand what we have pointed to,

And this earth is among the noblest of the earths and the highest of them in worth with God (exalted is He), because it is the locus of the prophets, the messengers, and the righteous friends [of God].

So were it not for the heedlessness that the people have taken on, away from the knowledge of it, you would see them speaking of the unseen things, disposing in the difficult matters, and doing what they will by the power of the Maker of the creatures. So understand all that we have pointed to,

and know what we have indicated to you; and do not halt with the outward, for every outward has an inward, and every truth has a reality. And peace.

As for the second layer of the earth: its color is like the green emerald; it is called the earth of the acts of worship. The believers of the jinn inhabit it; their night is the day of the first earth, and their day is its night.

Its people continue dwelling in it until the sun sets from the earth of this world; then they come out to the outward of the earth, [and] they become enamored of the children of Adam, the enamoring of iron with the magnet -- yet they fear them more intensely than the fear of the prey for the lions.

The circuit of the globe of this earth is two thousand two hundred years and four months; but there is no ruin [/wasteland] in it -- rather, the whole is populated with dwelling.

And most of the believing jinn envy the people of [spiritual] aspirations and oppositions [to the ego]; so most of the destruction of the wayfarers is from the jinn of this earth -- they seize the person from where he does not perceive them.

And I have indeed seen a company of the masters -- I mean, a group of the Sufis of this age -- shackled, fettered, [whom] the jinn of this earth had bound, so that they deafened them and blinded their sight.

And they had been of those who hear the speech of the [divine] Presence with their [own] ears; so [each] became such that, when he is addressed from other than the direction of this earth, he does not hear nor comprehend, and they are veiled by what they are in -- so that, were they told what they are upon, they would deny it. For whoever I have pointed to is realized in what I have indicated to you,

and seek the help of God in making firm the path; the Real will save you from the guile of this party.

As for the third layer of the earth: its color is yellow like saffron; it is called the earth of [base] nature. The associators [/polytheists] of the jinn inhabit it; there is in it no believer in God.

They have been created for associationism and unbelief; they take form among people in the character of the children of Adam.

None knows them except the friends of God (exalted is He). They do not enter a town in which is a man of the people of [esoteric] realization, when he is firmly established with the rays of his lights.

But before that, they enter upon him and war with him; and they continue thus until God (exalted is He) aids him against them, [and then] they do not draw near, after this, to his land.

And whoever of them heads toward him is burned by the rays of his lights. These have no work in the earth except occupying the creation, away from the worship of God (exalted is He), with the kinds of heedlessness.

The circuit of the globe of this earth is a journey of four thousand four hundred years and eight months.

The whole of it is populated with dwellers, with no ruin in it. The Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) has not been mentioned [/remembered] in it, since He created it, except once -- in a language other than the language of its people.

So understand what we have pointed to, and know what we have indicated to you.

As for the fourth layer of the earth: its color is red like blood; it is called the earth of [base] desires. The circuit of the globe of this earth is a journey of eight thousand and sixty-five years and one hundred and twenty days.

The whole of it is populated with dwelling; the devils inhabit it, and they are of many kinds, being procreated from the very self of Iblīs.

So when they come to be before him, he makes them groups: he teaches one group of them killing, [so] that they may be guides against it, [drawing people away] from the worship of God;

then he teaches a group associationism, and makes them firm in the knowledge of the sciences of the associators, to settle the edifice of unbelief in the hearts of its people;

and he teaches a group [religious] knowledge, that they may dispute with it against the scholars; and he teaches a group of them cunning,

and a group deception, and a group fornication, and a group theft,

so that he leaves no disobedience, small or great, without having stationed for it a group of his helpers.

Then he commands them to sit in known places; so they teach the people of deception and cunning and the like to dwell in the level of greed; the people of killing and thrusting and the like to dwell in the level of [love of] leadership; the people of associationism to dwell in the level of associationism; the people of [misused] knowledge to dwell in the level of [vain] intimate-discourse and devotions; and the people of fornication and theft and the like to dwell in the level of [base] nature. Then he placed in their hands chains and fetters, commanding them to place them on the necks of whoever submits to their judgment seven successive times, with no repentance between them.

Then they hand him over, after that, to the demons (ʿafārīt) of the devils, who descend to the earth that is beneath them, and fix the roots of those chains in them; so he cannot oppose them, after those chains are placed on his neck, ever. And God speaks the truth, and He guides to the way. As for the fifth layer of the earth: its color is blue like indigo, and its name is the earth of tyranny (al-ṭughyān).

The circuit of its globe is seventeen thousand six hundred and ten years and eight months.

The whole of it is populated with dwelling; the demons of the jinn and the devils inhabit it, having no work except the leading of the people of disobediences to the major sins.

And all of these do nothing but the opposite [of what is asked]; so were it said to them "go," they would come; and were it said to them "come," they would go. These are the strongest of the devils in guile -- for those above them, of the people of the fourth layer, their guile is weak, repelled by the least movement.

God (exalted is He) said: "Truly the guile of Satan is ever weak" (4:76, al-Nisāʾ).

But as for these, their guile is immense; they rule over the children of Adam by the predominance of subjugation, so that they cannot oppose them, ever. And God speaks the truth, and He guides to the way.

As for the sixth layer of the earth: it is the earth of godlessness (al-ilḥād); its color is black like the dark night.

The circuit of the globe of this earth is a journey of thirty-five thousand two hundred and twenty-one years and one hundred and twenty days.

The whole of it is populated; the rebellious ones (al-marada) inhabit it, and whoever submits to no one's judgment, of the worship of God (exalted is He).

And know that all the jinn, in the difference of their classes, are all of four kinds: a kind, the elemental ones (ʿunṣuriyyūn); a kind, the fiery ones (nāriyyūn) -- and even though fire goes back to the two elements [heat and dryness], there is [yet] a subtle point [in distinguishing it]; a kind, the airy ones (hawāʾiyyūn); and a kind, the earthy ones (turābiyyūn). As for the elemental ones, they do not go forth from the world of the spirits, and simplicity predominates over them; and they are the most severe of the jinn in hardness -- they are named by this name for the strength of their correspondence to the angels,

and that is for the predominance of the spiritual matters over the lower natural matters in them; and they have no appearing except in the [stray] thoughts.

God (exalted is He) said: "the devils of mankind and the jinn" (6:112, al-Anʿām). So understand. And they do not show themselves except to the friends [of God].

As for the fiery ones, they go forth from the world of the spirits, mostly, and they vary in every form -- most of [the time] they take the human by surprise in the world of similitude (ʿālam al-mithāl), and do with him what they will in that world; and the guile of these is severe: among them is one who carries the person, with his [whole] frame, and raises him to its [own] place; and among them one who stays with him, so that the seer remains convulsed [/possessed] as long as it is with him. As for the airy ones, they show themselves in the sensory, facing the spirit, so that their forms are reflected upon the seer, and he is convulsed. As for the earthy ones, they confound the person and besmear him with their dust; and these are the weakest of the jinn in strength and guile.

As for the seventh layer of the earth: it is called the earth of wretchedness, and it is the surface of Jahannam; it was created from the lowest [parts] of nature. The serpents, the demons, and some of the Zabāniya of Jahannam inhabit it.

The circuit of the globe of this earth is a journey of seventy thousand four hundred and forty-two years and four months.

And its serpents and its scorpions are like the likes of the mountains and the necks of the Bactrian camels; and it is joined to Jahannam -- we seek refuge in God from it.

God settled these things in this earth, that it might be a paradigm, in this world, of what is in Jahannam of His torment --

just as He settled a group like the dwellers of the Garden upon the starred sphere, that it might be a paradigm, in this world, of what is in the Garden of His bliss; and the counterpart of that is in the imagination of the human.

And what is in the left side of it [the imagination], of the represented forms, is a copy of this [hellish] earth; and what is in the right side of it is a copy of what is in the Starless Sphere, of the houris and the like.

All of that, that His proof might stand against His creation; because, had He (exalted is He) not placed in this abode something of the Garden and the Fire, the intellects would not have been guided to the knowledge of them, for the absence of correspondence, so that belief in them would not be binding upon them.

So the Real (exalted is He) placed in this abode these things of the Garden and the Fire, that they might be a stairway for the intellects to the knowledge of what the Real (exalted is He) has informed of, of the bliss of the Garden and the torment of the Fire. So understand what we have pointed to, and do not halt with the outward of the word,

nor be confined to the inward of its meaning; rather, be realized in what its inward points to, and be certain of what its outward is upon -- for every outward has an inward, and every truth has a reality. And the [true] man is the one who "listens to the word and follows the best of it" [Q al-Zumar 39:18]. May God make us and you of those who "remembered, and behold, they see" (7:201, al-Aʿrāf).

Then know that the layers of the earth, when they take to [their] end, the cycle turns upon them in [the direction of] ascent;

just as the people of the Fire, when they have fulfilled what was written upon them and come out, do not come out except to the like of what the state of the people of the Garden reaches -- of the noble witnessing and the realization, by the realizing of the contemplation, [in reaching] to the lights of the divine grandeur.

So, just as water is the first sphere before that of earth, likewise it is the first sphere after the sphere of earth; then air after it, then fire, then the Moon, then every sphere upon the mentioned order, up to the sphere of spheres, and until it ends at the encompassing Throne.

And know that the seven encompassing seas -- their root is two seas; because the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He), when He looked upon the White Pearl, which became water --

what was [the part] facing, in the knowledge of God (exalted is He), the look of awe, grandeur, and majesty -- it, for the intensity of the awe, became salt, deadly-bitter in taste;

and what was [the part] facing, in the knowledge of God (exalted is He), the look of gentleness and mercy, became sweet in taste.

And God put the mention of the sweet first, in His saying (exalted is He): "This is sweet, fresh, its drink palatable, and this is salt, bitter" (35:12, Fāṭir) -- for the secret of mercy's outstripping of wrath.

And for this reason the root was two seas: a sweet and a salt.

So there came forth from the sweet a stream to the eastern side of it, and it mingled with the vegetation of the earth, so that its scent sprang up [/changed], and it became a sea by itself. Then there came forth from it -- I mean, from the sweet -- a stream from what adjoins the western side,

[which] drew near to the salt encompassing sea, so that its taste was blended, and it became blended; and it is a sea by itself.

As for the salt sea, three streams came forth from it: a stream that settled in the middle of the earth, so it remained upon its first taste, salt, and did not change -- so it is a sea by itself;

and a stream that went to the right, which is the southern side, so that the taste of the earth to which it extended predominated over it, and it became sour -- and it is a sea by itself;

and a stream that went to Syria (al-Shām), which is the northern side, so that the taste of the earth in which it extended predominated over it, and it became bitter, deadly -- and it is a sea by itself.

And [a seventh] encompassed Mount Qāf and the whole earth with all that is in it; no taste particular to it is known, but it is sweet of scent -- one who smells it can scarcely remain in his [former] state, but rather perishes from the sweetness of its scent.

And this is the encompassing sea, for which no roar is heard. So understand these allusions, and know what these expressions contain.

And here I detail for you this summary, and deposit in it, of the secrets of God, the rare of sayings.

As for the sweet sea: it is sweet of drink, easy of [the] mount, the thoroughfare of the elect and the common, and the attachment of the thoughts and the understandings; the near and the far scoop from it, and the weak and the strong draw from it.

By it the balance of the bodies is set right, and the law of the bodies stands in [its] ruling; it is white of color, transparent of being.

The child and the [grown] adult speed through its passages, and the seeker and the gainer pasture at its tables; its fish are easy of leading, near of catching, created from the light of the magnifying of reverence.

The permitted in it is distinct from the forbidden; and by it the outward ruling is bound, and by it the affair of the first and the last is set right; [it is] much of travel, little of peril.

Rarely do its vessels founder, or its rider drown in its waves; it is the way of the fugitive to his deliverance, and the path of the seeker to his desires.

From it are drawn forth the pearls of allusions, from the shells of expressions; and from it appears the coral of the wise-judgments, in the nets of speech.

Its vessels are conveyed, and its anchorages are known, not unknown; near of bottom, far of depth; its dwellers are the people of the differing religions and the [variously] harmonizing sects.

Its chiefs are the Muslims, and its rulers the practising jurists. God has charged the angels of bliss with its keeping, and made them the people of its expansion and its contraction.

And it has four famous branches, and forty thousand obliterated branches.

The famous branches: the Euphrates, the Nile, the Sayḥūn [Syr Darya], and the Jayḥūn [Amu Darya].

And the obliterated [branches], most of them are in the land of India and the Turkmen; and in Abyssinia (al-Ḥabasha) are two branches of them.

The circuit of the encompassing of these seas is a journey of twenty-four years; and they are branched throughout the regions of the earth, and ramified in its length and breadth.

Two branches divide from them: the first at Iram of the Pillars (Iram dhāt al-ʿImād), and the other at Nuʿmān.

As for the one that took to the breadth, and became apparent from the contact of the earth -- it is the one that populates the abodes and the works, and is manifest before the hands of the travelers and the workers. And as for the one that took to the length of union, and dwelt in Iram of the Pillars -- it is the blended sea, possessor of the blended pearl.

So understand these allusions, and know these expressions, for the matter is not upon its outward; and God encompasses the first of the matter and its last.

As for the fetid sea: it is the difficult of routes, the near of perils.

It is the roads of the wayfarers and the highway of the travelers; everyone aims to pass over it, but none reaches it except the [true] worshippers.

Its color is grayish, and its being is most strange; its waves overflow with the kinds of piety, and its profits, with the halves of the virtues, come and go; its fish are like the mules and the camels, bearing the whole and the burdens of the loads to the land of the most-precious pearl -- and they would not have been reaching it except with the [utmost] strain of the souls.

But they [the fish] are difficult of leading, not hunted except by earnestness and exertion; none cross their dazzling vessels except the people of the subduing resolves.

Its winds blow from the clear eastern side, so they drive its vessels to the shore of the prospering sea. Its people are truthful in deeds, believing in sayings and states; its dwellers are the [devout] worshippers, the righteous, and the ascetics.

From this sea are drawn forth the pearls of abiding and the corals of purity; with them is adorned whoever purified himself, was purified, took on [the divine] character, was realized, and was [self-]disclosed to. God has charged the angels of torment with the keeping of this wondrous sea. The circuit of the encompassing of this sea is a journey of five thousand years.

And it has taken a stretch in the breadth, not extended in the earth. As for the blended sea, possessor of the blended pearl: its color is yellow, its waves congealed like the red rock; not everyone is able to drink of it, and not everyone is able to travel in it [along] a path.

It is the sea of [Iram] of the Pillars, the like of which was not created in the lands; difficult of routes, abundant of foundering and perils.

None is saved in it except single ones of the believers, and none masters its affair except solitary ones of the [firm] convinced.

And everyone of the unbelievers who embarks in its vessel -- it leads him to drowning and wreckage; and most of the vessels of the Muslims are pursued by the sharks of this particular sea; none mans its vessels except the people of the ascendant intellects, supported by the healing transmitted [texts].

And as for others than them, [each] deems the loss too great, and seeks [his] benefit in [merely] staying [ashore]. The fish of this sea are abundant of subtleties, immense of stratagems, not hunted except with the silken net of certitude; and none undertakes that except men who were [truly] believers.

From it are drawn forth the pearl of divine origin (lāhūtī) and the coral of [its] human-nature vista (nāsūtī); and the benefits of this sea -- their number is uncountable, and their span is not known.

And its foundering is severe in loss, affecting the bodies and the religions.

The dwellers of this sea are the people of the lesser truthfulness (al-ṣiddīqiyya al-ṣughrā), and the bearers of the nourishment of the people of the greater truthfulness. I saw the dwellers of this sea sound of belief, safe, by good opinion [of God], from the seductions of [blind] following.

God has charged the angels of subjugation with the keeping of this abundant sea. They are the people of Iram of the Pillars, the like of which was not created in the lands.

And this sea -- its waves strike upon the shore of this near town, and its people profit by its wondrous fish.

The breadth of the encompassing of this sea is a journey of seven thousand years -- and the traveler may traverse it in [as little as] a year; ramified in the length of the abode, submerging the wilderness of it and the cultivated. As for the salt sea: it is the general encompassing one and the complete circling one, of the blue color and the deepest depth; whoever drinks of its water dies of thirst, and perishes in annihilation.

The winds of pre-eternity blew in its [places of] setting, so that the waves clashed in its sides; so none is saved in it who swims, and neither the comer nor the goer finds his way in it -- except when the hands of [divine] success aid him,

so that his ship returns [running with sails] spread in that deep sea. Its vessels travel only in the [pre-dawn] late-night hours, and its winds blow only [in] mass, from the right and the left.

Its ship is built of the planks of the [sacred] law, and nailed with the nails of the [ocean-]deep; the thoughts went astray in its road, and the intellects were bewildered in its depth; its vessels are abundant of foundering, swift of destruction and toil.

None is saved in it except the single ones, and none escapes its perils except the solitary ones; the sharks of this sea swallow the vessels and the rider, and consume the resident and the goer.

The traveler in it finds, upon every route, a thousand thousand [/a million] perils.

The forbidden in it is confounded with the permitted, and the source in it is mingled with the wealth; its bottom has no end, and its last has no beginning.

None is able to plunge into it except the people of the ample resolves, and none takes of its pearl except the people of the lofty aspirations.

Its affair is built upon the reality of the [final] harvest, [and] the branches and the roots are founded upon it; its waves are tumultuous, its surges clashing, its terrors immense, and the clouds of its rain piled up.

Its people have no guide but the radiant stars, and its vessels have no anchorage but the wandering in the darknesses.

Its fish are in the configuration of all the creatures, and its vermin spew the kinds of venoms.

God (exalted is He) created the crawling things of this sea from the light of His Name the Powerful, and made them the reality of the wisdom of the manifest command; the diver draws forth from this sea -- if he is saved from its flood and its ebb -- the unique [orphan-pearls] of pearls, in the shells of [protective] reserve.

God made its dwellers, from the Highest Assembly, a group who have the upper hand; and He charged with their keeping the angels of [divine] inspiration.

Know that, when God (exalted is He) looked, in pre-eternity, upon the Ruby existing in non-existence, this sea had the light of that Ruby and its splendor;

and the sweet was of its streams, its form, and its configuration. So when the Ruby became water, the two seas became a darkness and a radiance.

So when "He let loose the two seas, [that] they meet" (55:19), God placed between them the Water of Life [as] "a barrier they do not transgress" (55:20); and this water is at the junction of the two seas (majmaʿ al-baḥrayn) and the meeting of the two rulings and the two affairs.

And it is a spring, flowing, on the western side, by the town named al-Azal al-Maghrib [the western pre-eternity]; and of the [special] property of this particular [body of] water, which God created at the junction of the two seas, is that whoever drinks of it does not die, and whoever swims in it eats of the liver of the Bahmūt.

And the Bahmūt is a whale in the salt sea, this one mentioned first; God made it the bearer of this world and what is in it.

For God (exalted is He), when He spread out the earth, set it upon the two horns of an ox called al-Barahūt, and set the ox upon the back of a whale, in this sea, called the Bahmūt.

And it is that to which the Real (exalted is He) pointed in His saying: "and what is beneath the soil" (20:6, Ṭā Hā). And this junction of the two seas is the one at which Moses (upon him be peace) met with al-Khiḍr, upon its shore -- because God (exalted is He) had promised him that he would meet with a servant of His servants at the junction of the two seas.

So when Moses and his lad went -- [the lad] bearing his provision -- and they reached the junction of the two seas, Moses (upon him be peace) did not recognize it except by the fish that the lad had forgotten upon the rock; and the sea was at flood, so when it ebbed, the water reached the rock, and the reality of life came to be in the fish, so "it took its way into the sea, slipping away" [Q al-Kahf 18:61].

So Moses marveled at the life of a dead fish that had [already] been cooked over the fire. And this lad, his name is Joshua son of Nūn (Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn), and he is older than Moses (upon him be peace) in age by a solar year; and their story is well-known.

And I have detailed that in our treatise titled Musāmarat al-Ḥabīb wa-Musāyarat al-Ṣaḥīb ("The Night-Talk of the Beloved and the Companioning of the Friend"); so let it be pondered.

Alexander journeyed to drink of this water, relying upon the saying of Plato (Aflāṭūn) that whoever drinks of the Water of Life does not die.

because Plato had reached this locus and drunk from this sea; so he remains to this day of ours, in a mountain called Dārāvand.

And Aristotle was the disciple of Plato, and he was the teacher of Alexander; he accompanied Alexander in his journey to the junction of the two seas.

So when he reached the land of the darknesses, they journeyed on, and a few of the army followed them, while the rest stayed in a city called Thubat -- with the [vowel] "u" on the three-dotted thāʾ and the single-dotted bāʾ, and the [silent] tāʾ with two dots above -- and it is the limit of what the sun rises upon.

And among those of his army who accompanied Alexander was al-Khiḍr (upon him be peace); so they journeyed a period whose number they did not know, and whose span they did not grasp, [while] they were upon the shore of the sea.

And whenever they alighted at a station, they drank of the water. So when they grew weary of the length of the journey, they took to returning to where the camp had stayed -- and they had [in fact] passed by the junction of the two seas, on their way, without perceiving it;

so they did not stay at it nor alight at it, for the absence of the sign. And al-Khiḍr (upon him be peace) had been inspired [such] that he took a bird, slaughtered it, and tied it to his leg;

and he used to walk with his leg in the water; so when he reached this locus, the bird revived and stirred upon him; so he stayed at it, and drank of that water, and bathed in it, and swam in it -- and he concealed it from Alexander, and concealed his affair until he came out.

So when Aristotle looked at al-Khiḍr (upon him be peace), he knew that he had attained, beyond them, by that; so he clung to his service until he died, and he and Alexander gained from al-Khiḍr abundant sciences.

Know that the Spring of Life is the locus of manifestation of the essential Reality of this existence.

So understand these allusions, and unloose the symbols of these expressions; and do not seek the matter except from your [own] eye [/essence], after your going-forth from your I-ness.

perhaps you may win the degree of [those who are] "alive with their Lord, provided for" (3:169, Āl ʿImrān), and the [spiritual] moment may grant you that you become of their party -- so that you [yourself] are the one intended by Moses and his Khiḍr, and by Alexander, the darknesses, and his river.

And know that al-Khiḍr (upon him be peace) -- his mention has [already] passed in what preceded; God (exalted is He) created him from the reality of "and I breathed into him of My spirit" (38:72, Ṣād); so he is the Spirit of God.

And for this reason he lives until the Day of Resurrection. I met with him and asked him, and from him I relate all that is in this encompassing sea.

And know that this encompassing sea [already] mentioned -- what of it is separated from Mount Qāf, on the side adjoining this world, is salt; and it is the [salt] sea mentioned.

And what of it is joined to the mountain -- it is beyond the salt [sea], for it is the Red Sea (al-baḥr al-aḥmar), the sweet-scented. And what is beyond Mount Qāf, joined to the Black Mountain, it is the Green Sea (al-baḥr al-akhḍar), and it is, in taste, like the killing poison: whoever drinks of it a drop perishes, and is annihilated at once.

And what of it is beyond the mountain, by the rule of separation, encompassing, and comprehending all the existents -- it is the Black Sea (al-baḥr al-aswad), for which no taste and no scent is known, and which no one reaches; rather, the informing [/report] of it occurred, so it is known, but it is cut off from the [outward] traces, so it is concealed.

As for the Red Sea, whose fragrance is like the most-pungent musk -- it is known as the highest sea, possessor of the most-flourishing wave. I saw, upon the shore of this sea, believing men who have no worship except the bringing-near of the creation to the Real; they have been molded [/innately disposed] upon that.

So whoever consorts with them or companions them knows God in accordance with [the measure of] consorting with them, and draws near to God in accordance with [the measure of] traveling alongside them; their faces are like the rising sun and the gleaming lightning; the bewildered one in the wastelands of the deserts seeks light by them, and the one lost in the deep recesses of the seas is guided by them.

When they desire to travel in this sea, they set up a snare for its fish; so when they have hunted them, they ride upon them -- because the vessels of this sea are its fish, and its earnings are its pearl and its coral.

But when they settle upon the back of this whale, they revive at the sweetness of the scent of the sea, and so they swoon, [and] do not come back to their [own] selves, nor return to their sensory [perception], as long as they are riding in this sea.

So the fish travel with them until they [the fish] take their limit of the shore, and cast them at a station of those stations.

So when they reach the land and come out of that sea, their intellects return to them, and their harvest becomes apparent to them; and they win marvels and wonders that cannot be confined -- the least of which is expressed as: "what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and which has not occurred to the heart of a mortal."

And know that the waves of this sea -- each wave of them fills what is between the heaven and the earth a thousand thousand [/a million] times, [extending] to what has no end.

And were it not that the world of Power has room for this sea, it would not be found in all of existence. God charged the Cherubim with the keeping of this sea, so they stand upon its shore; no settling settles them in its middle; and there is, in this sea, of dwellers, none but its beasts and the fish. As for the Green Sea: it is bitter of taste, the mine of destruction and drowning; it is described, with the learned thereof, by the best of attributes, and marked, with those who know it, by the fairest of marks; there is no fish in it, and whoever rides it dies.

I saw it, and upon its shore a tranquil, secure city -- it is the city that al-Khiḍr and Moses reached, [and] "they asked its people for food, but they refused to give them hospitality" (18:77, al-Kahf).

And that is because the two of them had donned the garments of the poor [/dervishes]; and that town -- none can eat its food except the kings and the princes.

Then I saw its people infatuated with riding this sea, and attached to the love of this affair -- such that they gather at the head of every year, which is the day of their festival;

so they ride upon noble [riding-]beasts colored with every color -- green, red, yellow, and other -- and bind themselves upon them, and tie a blindfold upon the eyes of the noble beasts; then they bring them to the side of the sea. So whoever's beast travels with him into the sea -- he perishes, and the beast [too];

and whoever's mount takes him aside from the sea, he returns alive -- but, in himself, [he is] like the disappointed and the rejected, like the forsaken and the driven-away.

So he continues to acquire another noble beast, and rear it, and feed it, until the turn of the year; then he does what he did in the previous year -- until he dies [/is taken] in the sea, out of their enamorment with the sea, as the moth becomes enamored of the light of the lamp,

so it [the moth] continues to cast itself into it until it is annihilated and perishes in it. As for the seventh sea, it is the Black, the severing; its dwellers are not known, and its fish are not known; it is impossible of reaching, not possible of attaining -- because it is beyond the [bounding] limits and the last of the cycles and the rounds; there is no end to its marvels, and no last to its wonders.

The expanse fell short of it, so it [seemed] long; and it exceeded the marvels, until it is as though it were the impossible.

So it is the Sea of the Essence (baḥr al-dhāt), before which the Attributes were bewildered; and it is the non-existent and the existent, the marked and the lost, the known and the unknown, the ruled-over and the transmitted, the foreordained and the intelligible.

Its existence is its loss, and its loss is its finding; its first encompasses its last, and its inward is veiled over its outward; what is in it is not grasped, and none knows it [so as] to exhaust it. So let us draw in the rein from plunging into it and [from further] exposition.

And God speaks the truth, and He guides to the way; and upon Him is reliance.