He said: "He is more incapable than that." It was said: "Does he then change the eyes of humans so that they see him as he desires?" He said: "He is weaker than that." It was said: "How is he then?" He said: "The eyes of the creation see the formation and the changing due to the defect [illness] that is within them. It is strange that they allow for Iblis to change their vision and to appear to them however he wills, yet they do not allow that for Allah, their Creator, who changes the vision of mankind however He wills, and He is the Creator of Iblis and others among the creatures."

I said: "My Master! Does the Lord take a form like the forms of His creation so that they see Him like their forms?"

He said: "He changes the eyes of the creation so that they see Him like their forms; thus they perceive Him according to their own action. Do you not see that they used to see the Messenger of Allah eating, yet they saw no shadow for him?"

And from Ali b. Ibrahim and from Muhammad b. Isa, from Abdul Rahman b. Abi Najran, who said: I asked Abu Ja'far—may his might be exalted—about Monotheism (Tawhid), and I said: "Should I imagine a thing that is unlimited and unintelligible?"

He said: "Whatever your imagination falls upon of a thing, He is contrary to it. Nothing resembles Him, and imaginations do not grasp Him. He is not conceptualized in the conscience contrary to what is conceptualized in the imaginations, because they do not imagine anything other than what is sensed and limited."