278

for receiving a soul in the fourth month, to he reck-
oned from the moment when the sperina fell and
settled in the womb; and this separation from one
body and junction with another is called madd,
" resurrection." An " apparition" is -when a soul
accumulates excellence upon excellence and an
overflow takes place; so that by beatific vision it
becomes visible ; that is, it may happen, that a per-
fect soul, after its separation from the body, resides
years in the upper world, and afterwards, for the
sake of perfecting mankind, joins with a body, and
the time of this junction is also the fourth month to
be reckoned from the moment of the formation of
the body, as was said upon transmigration.

It is stated, in the abridged commentary upon Gul-
shen-raz, that the soul cannot be without a body.
When it is separated from the elemental body, it
becomes a shadowy figure in the barzakh, that is, in
the interval of time between the death and the resur-
rection of a man.;1 this is called u the acquired
" body," The barzakh, to which the soul is trans-
ported after its separation from this world, is another
place than that which is between the spirits and the
bodies. The first is called ghaib imkani, u the pos-
" sible disappearance/7 and the second ghaib mahdli,
" the illusive disappearance/' All those who expe-
rience the possible disappearance, become informed

1 See page 245, note 2.