I am the mine of favors, the Master of exemplary punishment, and the one who encircles with shackles. I am the mobilizer of the factions (al-Ahzab), the avenger through punishment, the one standing over the Reckoning, and the striker of necks. I am the Master of Mercy and Forgiveness and the Guide to the All-Merciful. I am the conductor of rivers and the driver of ships in the seas. I am the Subduer, the All-Forgiving, the pillar of the All-Compelling, and the nourisher of fruits. I am the Master of the Ark of Noah, the opener of conquests, the manifester of wounds, and the clarifier of the explained Book.

I am the one standing upon the Two Gulfs (al-Tatanjayn), the gazer toward the Two Wests, the fulfiller of the Two Easts, the merger of the two seas and the barrier between the two realms (barzakh al-barzakhayn). I am the builder of the two dams, the director of the two weighty things (al-thaqalayn), the Master of the Two Returns (al-raj'atayn), and the decreer of the Two Recurrences (al-karratayn). I saw Paradise with my own eyes. I am the Great Formidable One and the Lesser Formidable One.

It is said: Then al-Asbagh ibn Nabata, peace be upon him, stood up and said to him: "O Amir Almuminin, what are the Two Gulfs (al-Tatanjan), and what is Paradise (Afridus)?"

He said: "They are two standing mountains, not leveled, in the middle of Afridus—which is the Seventh Encompassing Sea wherein no ship sails. The edges of the earth are wrapped around it like a wrung-out garment, and it resides within the body of the other Tatanj. It is from the direction of the West, in the middle of Afridus. I saw the sun in the perfection of its form at the base of the Primordial Matter (al-Hayula), in its form like a bird returning to its nest—nay, swifter than that—until it reaches the Flame and the Black Water. Had it not been for the clashing of the head of Afridus, the scratching of the Pen, and the twitching of the two Tatanj, everyone in the heavens and the earth would have been struck unconscious by the intensity of its sound and the hissing of its descent into the Black Water (which is the Murky Spring)."