And Ibn al-Fārid likewise said in his poem, which he composed according to their doctrine and entitled Nazm al-Sulūk (The Spiritual Path in Verse):

“I was a messenger sent from myself to myself;
and my essence found proof of me through my signs.”

Its substance is the doctrine of the oneness of existence—the doctrine of Ibn Arabī, Ibn Sab‘īn, and others like them—as he said:

“To her I offer my prayers at the station,
and in them I witness that she prayed to me.
Both of us pray and worship, prostrating to me—
his reality, in union, in every prostration.
No one but myself has ever prayed to me;
nor was my prayer for another in performing any unit of prayer.”

He continues until he says:

“I have always been her, and she has always been me;
there is no distinction: rather, my essence loved itself.”

Statements like this are numerous. And Allah knows best.

Our companion, the jurist and Sufi Abū al-Hasan Alī ibn Qurbās, told me that he visited Shaykh Qutb al-Dīn Ibn al-Qastallānī and found him composing a book. He asked, “What is this?” He replied, “This is a refutation of Ibn Sab‘īn, Ibn al-Fārid, Abū al-Hasan al-Jazlī, and al-Afīf al-Tilimsānī.”

He also told me concerning Jamāl al-Dīn Ibn Wāsil and Shams al-Dīn al-Asbahānī that they both used to