It is well known that what is found in the book is only its mention, not the very thing itself; rather, it is the presence of written lines in people’s minds that corresponds to the verbal mention.

Any given entity has multiple modes of existence: an existence in external reality, an existence in the mind, an existence upon the tongue, and an existence at the fingertips—that is, a concrete, cognitive, graphic, and verbal existence. In each of these four spheres it can be spoken of and pointed to, with contextual clues and pronouns clarifying at times that the referent is the written line corresponding to the utterance, and at other times that the referent is the utterance corresponding to the intended meaning.

It is likewise obvious that the meaning lodged in the heart is closer to the external reality than either speech or script. Hence, when one alludes to what lies in the heart of the gnostic—namely, the very thing he loves and remembers—as the Known and the Beloved, that reference is nearer still. Indeed, remembrance, knowledge, and love may so dominate the heart that a person becomes oblivious to his own existence before the One he witnesses, oblivious to his own knowledge before the One he knows, and oblivious to his own remembrance before the One he remembers, until someone in such a state bursts out:

“Glory be to me!” or “There is nothing in this cloak but Allah!”

Yet everyone realizes that the Essence of Allah, blessed and exalted, is not what resides in his heart; rather, what is in his heart is a conceptual representation of Him, together with his knowledge of Him and his love for Him—through which he becomes absent from himself, even if the one who makes such exclamations is in error.

Consequently, someone who is not in error will say, “Allah is in so-and-so’s heart; so-and-so possesses nothing but Allah; whoever seeks Allah should go to so-and-so,” and their intention is not that