Abu Ali al-Basri (may Allah make his face radiant) said in his book known as Al-Sab'in: that the Chain, it is every category he enters, he is returned in it seventy times.
An example of that: That he enters into the form of sheep, so he is returned in its males, its females, its young, and its old seventy times; slaughter, drowning, being eaten by a predator, and death occur upon him. Then he exits into the form of the goat, so [the same] befalls him likewise. And the transfer within the Chain [Al-Salsala] is called Naskh, and likewise [in] every genus, until he enters into another [genus], so it is called Maskh, then he is transmigrated [yunsakhu] within it.And the end of that is to the Durr [Pearl/Atom], a cycle, and it is the Qashash [scavenging/vermin] and the Rusukh [firm rooting/petrification], abiding eternally in that.
If an objector objects to us and says: "What punishment is upon them in this, while they find life entirely as the human finds it in his eating, his drinking, and his marriage, and the Ghamm1 grief has fallen away from them—which is the punishment of the human?"
The Answer: Indeed, all these Masukhat [metamorphosed ones] are repeated in every genus according to their entitlement.