O He for whom the Messenger is His Gate and the Imam is His Light. Had You not inspired the people of Your Oneness, the people of Your knowledge, and the people of Your obedience—strengthening their hearts and firming their feet—they would have inclined toward the speech of the heretics and the deniers of Your knowledge, who deviate from the path of Your guidance. To You belongs praise, O Ali, O Magnificent One, for the knowledge of Yourself You have bestowed upon us. O He for whom the prophets are His veils and the Imams are His core. O He who possesses me so as not to destroy me; woe to those whose hearts are hardened against Your remembrance, who say regarding You what they know not. Exalted are You far above what the wrongdoers and the deniers say."

He said: One day in his assembly, he took an oath and said: "By the Right of the Truth, the Prince of Bees." Then he corrected himself and said: "Behold, God is the Manifest Truth."

He also narrated, saying: I traveled down with Abu Bakr Dalaf ibn Juhdur al-Shibli—may God brighten his face—from Basra to Baghdad. I remained with him until al-Muqtadir seized al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj and ordered that his hands and feet be cut off and that he be crucified upon the bridge. When the people dispersed from around him, Abu Bakr al-Shibli stood there—and I was with him—secluding himself from his companions. Al-Shibli said to him: "This is the punishment for your broadcasting of what God entrusted to you."

Al-Hallaj replied: "No, by the Right of the Truth, O Abu Bakr; rather, this is a punishment whose cause I know. A certain sheikh among the masters had a book containing the Supreme Name of God and entrusted it to me, but I betrayed him regarding it. He requested that I return it to him, but I refused. He said to me: 'I shall supplicate against you,' but I paid him no mind. He then supplicated against me that my hand and foot be severed; this is the punishment of that sheikh." Al-Shibli asked him: "And what is this station?" Al-Husayn replied to him: "This is the first step in Sufism," then he recited: