He shows them the Essence as an Image by His Power

Exalted be the Imager beyond the imaging of limited beings.

That they might establish Him and not negate His vision

With the certainty of beholding—Exalted is the Eternal

Beyond confinement and beyond anything that encompasses Him

As a composite, a whole, or what contains Him in fragments.

We have sought proof for this discourse from what he [al-Khasibi] said in his treatise regarding the Visible Image: "It is He—in affirmation and existence—because we have found Him and not lacked Him. Beholding (al-'Iyan) means: that we beheld of Him according to our capacity and the measure of our spiritual stations. Certainty (al-Yaqin) means: that we became certain in our hearts and did not doubt His manifestation and existence, nor did we find Him absent."

The proof for this is what has been transmitted of reports from the "Book of Witnesses" (Kitab al-Shawahid) on the authority of the Scholar [the Imam]—Exalted be His Might—where he was asked about the Manifest (al-Zahir) whom visions do not [fully] perceive: "Is it He in His absolute perfection? Or does the vision perceive a part and not the other? And what are the limits of what the vision perceives?"

He [the Imam]—Exalted be His Might—replied: "Verily, that which the vision sees is not fully perceived (Ghayr Mudrak), yet it may be seen in its entirety, because He is an Absolute One (Ahad) who is never