Al-Mufaddal said: "I asked my Master, the True in Promise—Exalted be His Might—about the manifestation of the Meaning to His creation in the Visible Image. Does the Essence take form (tatasawwar), become partitioned, divided, or shift from its being?"

He [the Imam] replied: "The Anza'i Image is the Radiance and the Shadow; it is the Essence itself. It has never changed in the ancient of ages, nor in the times that have been brought into existence. Its outward (Zahir) is the Essential Anza'i Image, and its inward (Batin) is a Meaningful Divinity (Ma'nawiyya Lahutiyya)."

"That Image is the Hyle of Hyles (Hayoula al-Hayoulat), the Producer of all products, the Mother of all motions, and the Cause of every cause ('Illat kulli 'illa). Nothing knows it, nor knows what it is, except Itself."

He [the Imam] continues: "And you must know, O Mufaddal, that the Anza'i Image—which said upon the pulpits: 'My outward is Imamate and Succession, while my inward is an Unseen that cannot be perceived'—is not the totality of the Creator, yet the Creator other than it.