He said: "If the matter is as you say, then I seek refuge in Allah, the Ali [High], the Great. For the Apparent is the Hidden, and the Hidden is the Apparent."1
We said: "He has said to us: 'He is the First and the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden.' This indicated that the Apparent is the Hidden, and the Hidden is the Apparent."2
So we said: "[Is] the Apparent other than the Hidden, and the Hidden other than the Apparent?"
Muhammad ibn Sinan—peace be upon him—said: "Yes, this is the Truth.
Footnotes
1It appeared in some copies: "If the matter is as you say — (and) I seek refuge in Allah, the High, the Great." If the first text is correct, then the particle Fa in the word (Fa-a'udhu / Then I seek refuge) is the link for the answer to the condition, implying: ("Then I seek refuge..."). And the Fa in the word (Fa-al-Zahir / For the Apparent) is resumptive [Ist'nafiyya]. The meaning of the statement would be as follows: The Sage (pbuh) sought refuge from their saying: "The Name is not other than the Meaning," and he resumed his speech saying: "For the Apparent is the Hidden and the Hidden is the Apparent," clarifying to them thereby that the Name differs, but the Meaning remains constant and does not differ. But if the second text is correct, then the sentence ("And I seek refuge in Allah, the High, the Great") is parenthetical, and the Fa in the word (Fa-al-Zahir) is the link for the answer to the condition. The meaning of the statement would be: "Indeed, your saying 'Is not the Name other than the Meaning?' indicates the equality and likeness of the Humanity [Nasut] to the Power." And this is an objection from him against their saying.
2In some copies, Muhammad ibn Sinan—peace be upon him—answered them saying: "Yes, He has said that. However, by 'the Apparent,' He meant that He appeared through the Apparent as a test from Him for them, and His appearance through the Apparent was not His [Essential] Reality. Rather, He appeared so that the Proof [Hujja] would be established over His creation, and so that the believer might feel intimacy with Him when he sees Him as being of his own kind in humanity. Thus, we knew that it is the Power which He manifested to His creation." They wanted to prove from the Holy Qur'an that the indication of the two Names is one and there is no difference between them. So he clarified to them the indication of the Name ("The Apparent") as it came in the noble verse: He, the Exalted, is Apparent by the Attribute to humans as a human, but the humanity which He manifested was not His Reality. Thus, they knew that He, the Exalted, appeared by His Power, not by His Form.