Our Master, the Greatest Gate of Allah, Muhammad bin Nusayr Al-Numayri (peace comes from him), said regarding her (may her glory be exalted): "The opponents looked at her as being the daughter of the Messenger of Allah (may his glory be exalted), and they did not know that she originated the heavens, the earth, and the worlds, and that she is the Gem of the Master Muhammad (may his glory be exalted)."1
She is the Originator of the heavens, the earth, and the worlds, but the manifestation required this image for testing from one aspect, and for establishing the Proof from another. Indeed, this test occurred in the Great Luminous World.
As it came from our Master Muhammad bin Sinan (peace be upon him) who said: "I looked at Muhammad of Praise (Al-Hamd) in seventy stations and I did not doubt, until he appeared with the private parts (farj) and the hair (wafra); so I lowered my gaze like one doubting him, and thus I was veiled."2
This is one of the matters in which the test occurred. Ignorance of it and doubt regarding it veil its owner from integration and attaining the lofty stations. It is of evil conjecture regarding Allah to believe that our Lady Zaynab and Al-Zahra (may their glory be exalted, and may their names be magnified) are women like [ordinary] women.
Also, on the authority of Ibn Abbas (peace be upon him) regarding the saying of the Exalted: {And on the Elevations (Al-A'raf) are men who know all by their mark}: He said: "The Prophet, Ali bin Abi Talib, Fatima, Al-Hassan, and Al-Hussein (may their glory be exalted) are upon the wall of Paradise and Hell; they recognize those who love them by the whiteness of their faces and those who hate them by the blackness of their faces."3
The verse applied the expression "men" to our Lady Fatima (may her glory be exalted). For "the man" is also not the image of the male in reality, but "the man" is the one who is manly (mutarajjil) in Gnosis. So how then regarding my Master Fatir? For He is the Originator (Fatir) of Gnosis, may His glory be magnified.