So when the Souls unite with the Intellects, they acquire Knowledge, become perfect, and face the Active Intellect (Al-Aql al-Fa'al) from every direction1.
So it [the Soul] perceived the known things (Al-Ma'lumat) and all the sought demands imprinted within it [the Active Intellect] from the direction facing it; just as the forms of sensible things are imprinted in the vision if the air is illuminated by the occurrence of some lights.
And that is like the facing of the mirror to the visible objects. So the Soul is like the mirror, and its knowledge and intellection are like the polishing (Siqala) of the mirror.
And indeed, the Forms of Realities exist in the Active Intellect in potentiality and actuality, and the Soul derives supply from it.
Footnotes
1The Ranks of the Intellect are:The Hylic (Material) Intellect (Al-Aql al-Hayulani): The "Child Intellect" devoid of intelligibles.The Intellect by Habit (Al-Aql bi-l-Malaka): That which has acquired the primary axioms (axiomatic truths), such as knowing "the whole is greater than the part." The Intellect in Actuality (Al-Aql bi-l-Fi'l): That which has acquired the forms derived from the primary axioms, stored within it such that it can refer to them whenever it wills and contemplate them in actuality. The Acquired Intellect (Al-Aql al-Mustafad): That in which the Form is present, so it contemplates it and intellectualizes it in actuality, and intellectualizes that it intellectualizes it in actuality. It is named "Acquired" because of its acquisition (Istifada) from the Active Intellect. Therefore: Human intellects graduate in their actuality through knowledge and teaching, not by instinct (Fitrah). Human Souls exist in potentiality and actuality. For example, an infant knows—without knowledge or teaching—that he needs food; this results from the Actual Nature (Fitrah Fi'liyya) of the Soul.We must know that the Active Intellect is the Seventh Universe (The Holiness of Gnosis), which is only a return/resort for the Knowing Believers. In it, all forms of Realities exist in potentiality and actuality, because it does not separate in supply (Madad) and Light from the Originating Emanator.The Active Intellect is the Emanator of the Universal Intellectual Forms stripped of matter; thus, it is an Intellectual Substance separate from matter as well. The Soul, in its highest stages of Gnostic Faith maturity, is called the Acquired Intellect. Therefore, it is attracted toward the Active Intellect to benefit from it.It faces it with its Mirror, so the forms of Realities emanating from it are imprinted upon it.Depending on the purity and polish of the Mirror, the clarity of the Scientific Form imprinted on it will be determined. If the Soul possesses a Mirror untainted by murkiness, it unites with the Active Intellect. At that point, it perceives Realities directly and in a short time, and the Gnostic Witnessing of the High Essence is accomplished for it in both the states of Manifestation and Inwardness.