And likewise inwardly:
A person may hear, in sleep or while awake, the speaker’s actual words—for example, those of angels—just as he sees with his heart the very thing unveiled to him in sleep or wakefulness. Or he may hear a representation of the speaker’s words within himself, just as he sees a representation of the speaker within himself, like a dream whose interpretation is the very thing seen. Or meanings may be represented to him as audible speech requiring interpretation, just as actual things may be represented to him as visible figures requiring interpretation. This is the case with most of what is seen and heard in dreams: it requires interpretation and resembles metaphor and illustrative parables. Such is the matter. And Allah knows best.
Section
On Existence in Wakefulness and Sleep
Seeing things with the eye takes two forms:
The first is the eye’s seeing an object without an intermediary. This is seeing in the unqualified sense, such as seeing the sun and the moon. As the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:
“You will see your Lord just as you see the sun and the moon.”
People have differed over whether vision consists in the object seen being imprinted upon the eye, results from the reflection of visual rays, or involves neither. These are well-known positions.