one considers water until, when he comes to it, he finds it is nothing but finds Allah before him, and He will pay him in full his due; and Allah is swift in account. Or [they are] like darknesses within a vast sea which is covered by a wave, upon which is a wave, over which are clouds—darknesses, some of them upon others. When one puts out his hand [therein], he can hardly see it. And he to whom Allah has not granted light—for him there is no light} (Al-Baqara: 39 - 40). [Note: While the text cites Al-Baqara, these verses are from Surah An-Nur].

Its meaning: that the believer who leans toward their deeds and deems them good, thinks of them as good, just as the thirsty one thinks the mirage is water, until when he comes to it—meaning he seeks it and knows its realities—he finds it to be nothing; meaning he finds no good or benefit in their deeds on the Day of Reckoning. Similarly, the Gnostic believers (Al-Mu'minun al-'Arifun) do not find any fixed reality in these human forms and their fifteen states; rather, they are a representation for instruction and discipline.

Al-Sayyid al-Makzun—may God sanctify him—said in verse:

They are the mirage, so cast them away and incline Toward the Sanctuary and the arrival at the Spring.