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states which undergo changes, the divine procrea-
tion of the world is the manifested light of his abso-
lute reality, under the shape of divers combinations
which thou beholdest.

" Certainly God made the heaven and earth to shine."

In the book of the sagacious is found that the
beautiful of this world enjoys the advantage of his
beauty, when he beholds and considers its reflexion
in a looking-glass; on that account, the absolute
Being, having been revealed in the mirror of exist-
ences and appropriate places, and having seen his
beauty in various mirrors, and in everyone of them
being exhibited under a shape worthy of himself,
become manifest in a series of multitudinous appear-
ances.

The Sufis further say : God is pure, conformable
to his essence, above all purity and comparison, and
in the gradations of names and attributes praised
in both ways. Whoever dispenses with the com-
parison of something which has no equal, does not
know that, declaring God to be without an equal, is
comparing him with pure beings. The friends of
God say that his name is of three kinds, viz. : he is
itldk, " absolute," by his essence, or considered as an
unsubstantial (abstract) thing; * and they give him

1 The original text has here _^A& ,^>t .L^sls ba itibar-i-amr ddemi.

o j J " •

Itibar has in the Dictionary, among other significations, that of " rea-