And cases of this sort are numerous, even though reasonable people know perfectly well that the very person of the exalted beloved remains where he is—his essence is certainly not inside the lover’s eye or heart. Yet the two states can become confused, so that the mistaken imagine that the being of the adored object of worship is somehow lodged within the self of the worshipful lover.

Because of this confusion some philosophers went astray, supposing that the essence of the intelligible object unites with the knowing, rational subject. They therefore collapsed the intelligible, the intellect, and the intelligent knower into a single reality, failing to distinguish between the indwelling of the idea or representation of the known object and the indwelling of its very essence. Such an error stems from a weak intellect coupled with the overpowering sway of love and experiential knowledge: a person becomes so absorbed in the One he worships that the act of worship slips from his awareness; so taken up with his beloved that the very love is forgotten; so engrossed in what he beholds that the act of beholding itself vanishes; so overwhelmed by the One he knows that the knowledge itself recedes. Thus, that which once did not exist is effaced from the servant’s perception—not that the servant himself is annihilated and absorbed into the One Who has never ceased to be witnessed.

From this station, if someone errs, he may utter statements like those reported from Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī: “subḥānī” (Glory be to me!), or “mā fī al-jubba…” (What is in this cloak…).