some other place. But what is in his heart is a representation of the beloved.

People often say, “You are in my heart; you are in my innermost heart.” What is meant is this representation, for it is known that the speaker does not mean the beloved’s very person, since the beloved exists apart from him. Similarly, one says, “You are before my eyes, and you are always on my tongue” (1), as the poet said:

Your image is in my eyes, your mention on my lips;
Your dwelling is in my heart—how, then, could you be absent? (2)

Another said:

A dweller in the heart, inhabiting it;
I never forget him, that I should need to recall him.

Thus, he made him a dweller inhabiting the heart, one who is never forgotten. He did not mean that the beloved’s very person had entered his heart in the way that (3) a person dwells in his house. Rather, what is present there is the cognitive representation.

(* Another said:

How wondrous that I yearn for them
and ask everyone I meet about them, though they are with me!
My eyes seek them, though they are within their pupils;
my heart longs for them, though they are between my ribs! *) (4)

Of the same kind is the saying, “The heart is the house of the Lord,” and what they relate in the Israelite traditions as His saying:

“Neither My earth nor My heaven encompasses Me, but the heart of My believing servant encompasses Me—the servant who is God-fearing, pure, scrupulous (5), and gentle (6).”

This does not mean that Allah