He says: It has been narrated that Origination (al-Ikhtira’) is the separation of the form from the Fashioner (al-Musawwir), so that this may be known from that: this is a Lord and this is a servant. This [one] is an Esoteric Unveiled essence (Anza’iyya Ma’nawiyya), and that [one] is a Nominal Muhammadan essence (Muhammadiyya Ismiyya); that is the attribute of Divinity (al-Uluhiyya), and this is the attribute of Lordship (al-Rububiyya).

He says: That heard speech from Him is the speech of a witness from a powerful Lord over a manifest, one, and subduing [entity]. It points toward His Essentiality (Ma’nuwiyya) and alerts to His Lordship; and indeed, that Visual Unveiled Form is the Lofty Essence.

He says: The questioner asked: 'How then did He come to have a form?'

The Knower (al-‘Alim)—may His might be exalted—replied: 'Due to the need of the created beings for it, just as they need speech; for there is no speech except from a form, and there is no gnosis (ma’rifa) except through [divine] power.'

He says: And among what was mentioned therein—meaning in The Fundamentals (al-Usus): Verily, the Creator (al-Bari), Exalted and Sublime, manifested to the worlds in the form of the elderly, venerable Sheikh; in the likeness of the form of the small, needy