I said: increase me my lord, and expand for me my chest that by it, those near me may live, and those who behold my life. So he said: I inform you of the truth of knowledge, by which he who is near you lives and whoever walks by my light. Then he said: O Mufaddal, indeed the appearance of Eternity among his creation is wondrous; none knows that except a knowledgeable expert, and indeed that is difficult. And know that the Essence is not called light; because it is the illuminator of every light.

And that your lord the Eternal willed without a thought in him nor delusion, by manifesting the Will and creating the Will for the thing, being the Mim and Sin. So from light of his Essence a radiant light shone; lights do not withstand it, and he manifested light as radiance not separate from him, and He manifested the radiance a shadow. So he established the form of existence in radiance and shadow, and made the shadow’s interior radiance, and radiance’s interior light. And the Essence is self-subsisting; and that is the Exalted’s saying: Have you not seen your lord how he extended the shadow, and if he willed he made it still then we made sun a guide over it; meaning what was in it of Essence.