Regarding this, our sheikh al-Khasibi—may God ennoble his station—says in his epistle within the Watery Poem:
And the Thing is a believer of religion, a piety that fulfills the attainment.
The thirsty person is the believer, for he is thirsty for the Gate. That is because the believer used to look at the Sin and think he was the Gate; so God said: {which a thirsty person considers to be water}1—meaning he considers him to be the Gate—{until, when he comes to it, he finds it is nothing but finds God before him}—meaning: he does not find him as the Gate, but finds that he is the Mim who has appeared through the Sin. {He will pay him in full his due}—meaning: He grants him his will of knowledge.
I asked him regarding the words of the Almighty: {[Such niches are] in houses which God has ordered to be raised and that His name be mentioned therein; exalting Him within them in the mornings and the evenings}2. He said: My hearing from my reliable sources and sheikhs—may God be pleased with them—is that these houses here are the Gates. The Meaning commanded the Name to raise them and manifest through them, so that His name is mentioned therein and He is found near them.
(423) He said, "It is my staff; I lean upon it, and I bring down leaves for my sheep with it and I have therein other uses"}3. He—may God be pleased with him—said: My hearing from my sheikhs—may God be pleased with them—is that the Staff is the Gate and the sheep are the believers. His saying "{and I have therein other uses}"—he said: the "uses" refer to the manifestation of the Name through him.
We have mentioned of the knowledge of Intermingling what was possible. We must now explain the sequence of the manifestation of Lord Mim through his noble Gate in the eleven Risings previously mentioned, so that the knowledge of the sequence is complete and the recognition of the Gate's rank within it is orderly.