He says: Know—may God illuminate [your heart] with His proof and purify your faith with His gnosis—that the Essential Meaning (Al-Ma’na) does not manifest except through its own Essence, not through any of its names or attributes. If He manifests in the form of the Veil, He only does so as a means of divine intimacy (ta’nis) for His creation, as an honoring of that form, and as a witnessing through the form of the Veil toward the Gnosis of the Essence 1 .
He says: Were it not for this intimacy provided by the Divine Unveiled Visual Form, the [created] forms would not have been guided to the One who brought them into existence; that is because there is neither [natural] affinity nor resemblance between Him and them.
He says: From the Form of the Beginning to the Form of the Ending—as mentioned in the allusion of the Folk [the Sufis]—the Visual Form is the Ultimate Goal. It is not the totality of the Creator (al-Bari), nor is the Creator other than it. It is He, in terms of affirmation, existence, witnessing, and certainty; yet He is not it—not at all—not in terms of combination, nor encompassment, nor confinement.