For them, he heard nothing outside of his own self; the letters and sounds were only figments of the imagination that revealed to him the intelligible meanings. They go on to say: “We are addressed with those very intelligible realities without any need for such a medium.” This resembles the claim of their Shaykh, the Ṭāʾī, that the Seal of the Saints draws from the same niche from which the angel who conveys revelation to the Messenger draws. He also asserts that sainthood (walāyah) is superior to prophethood, and that the Prophet’s sainthood, in his view, is higher than his prophethood and messengership, for—so he maintains—when he functions as a saint he receives directly from God without any intermediary, whereas as a prophet he receives through an intermediary.