Our sheikh al-Khasibi said to him: "O Abu Abd Allah, from Him he appeared and to Him he returns." He asked him: "O my lord, he appeared from Him, but how does he return to Him?" The sheikh—may God illuminate his person—recited: {Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of dark mud, and he found near it a people. We said, "O Dhu al-Qarnayn, either you punish [them] or else adopt among them [a way of] goodness."}¹ Then he said: "O son of Harun, when the Gate reached the occultation of the Eleventh, he found him setting in the Meaning—exalted be His glory—since He is his Eye from which he appeared and in which he sets. He is his Root, his Pre-eternity, his Apportioner, and his Manifester." The answer I presented from my sheikh—may God sanctify him—is complete. Abu al-Hassan Ra’iq bin al-Khidr al-Ghassani—may God be pleased with him—recited to me:

Glory be to the Manifester of His attributes as originated, pointing to an Originator who is their Actor.

For the attribute of a thing is other than it, just as every named thing is other than Him in sum.

He is too Majestic for description and attributes, so He is not perceived except by knowledge from the wise.

To Him—Exalted—belong the names, the best of them, He is invoked by them while He is one and perfect.

He is the Originator, and there was no one before Him to call or speak.

Letters of speech fell from Him upon their personages, a bestowal from the Bestower.

Every letter is originated, and upon the originated for the Meaning of its occurrence is an Actor.