Verily, the gardens are the spiritual manifestations (Al-Zuhurat al-Ma'nawiyya), both celestial and earthly; and the rivers and what follows them are the luminous stations (Al-Maqamat al-Nuraniyya) which never cease to manifest for His—the Almighty's—manifestation and to vanish for His absence. Those who believe and do righteous deeds are the believers who maintain that every gnosis (ma'rifa) of a manifestation from their manifestations—symbolized by the provision (rizq)—is the gnosis of the manifestations they had known before, even if they appeared in resemblance to them according to their ranks; this is to confirm the Decree (Al-Qadr) and its lack of variation. The spouses (Al-Azwaj) are the disciples wayfaring upon their path. For if belief in the Outward (Al-Zahir) were permissible, then the affirmation of outward marriage upon the people of Paradise would be permissible.

This verse has numerous aspects (wujuh) which I have omitted for the sake of brevity.

Among the decisive sayings explicitly stating that all these outward phenomena are but formal parables (amthila suriyya) for inward meanings is the saying of the Almighty in Surah Al-Hadid: {On the Day you see the believing men and believing women, their light proceeding before them and on their right, [it will be said], "Your good tidings today are [of] gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein you will abide eternally." That is the great attainment.