“This, too, is obscure, because it derives an affirmation from a negative attribute.”

He said: “Judge Abū Ja‘far al-Simnānī reported that Judge Abū Bakr said: ‘There is no way to apprehend God’s reality at present.’” He said: “We shall return to this in the Book of Perceptions.”

He said: “Our shaykh Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī used to say: ‘He is the Manifest through His signs, the Hidden; there is no way to apprehend His reality.’”

The teacher Abū al-Ma‘ālī said: “There is no doubt that He exists—glorified and exalted be He. An unqualified existent, however, without an attribute distinguishing it from others, is impossible. Yet it is not accessible to