Even the one of them who was put to death—Suhrawardī—was seeking to become a prophet, and Ibn Sabʿīn likewise strove after prophethood. They also cultivated the arts of sorcery and talismanic signs, by which they led astray anyone who fell for their deceptions.

Distinctive Quality One:
They claim that the would-be prophet possesses a sacred power, namely the power of intuitive insight, so that knowledge comes to him easily whereas others only attain it with great effort. They sometimes express this by saying that he grasps the “middle term” without the preliminaries needed by those who are not like him. In short, he is simply sharper than other people and finds learning far easier than they do.

Distinctive Quality Two:
The second trait is the power of imagination and the inner sense: what he knows inwardly is projected before him so that he both sees and hears it. Within himself he beholds luminous forms that, in their view, are the angels of God, and he hears inner voices that, for them, are the speech of God—much like what occurs to a sleeper in his dream and