"This, my master—may God grant you happiness—is the narration of the People of the Outward (Ahl al-Zahir); through the chains of their trustworthy narrators from the Messenger and the Imams—peace be from them—they narrate it and study it but do not [truly] know it. It belongs to us, not to them, and we know it apart from them. It is the 'fresh meat' and the 'ornament' extracted from the bottom of the sea. The sea is Knowledge, as Allah—Mighty and Majestic—said:

{He released the two seas, meeting [side by side]; Between them is a barrier [so] neither of them transgresses} (Al-Rahman: 19-20).

And the saying of the Mighty and Majestic: {This is fresh and sweet, pleasant to drink, and this is salty and bitter. And from each you eat fresh meat and extract ornaments which you wear} (Fatir: 12).

Thus, the two seas are: the Inward Knowledge and the Outward Knowledge."

The fresh and sweet water is the Outward Knowledge and the drink that no one loathes or rejects, but rather drinks and accepts—it is the River of Saul (Talut). Saul is The Name (Al-Ism), and his river is the Outward Legal Knowledge (Al-’Ilm al-Zahiri al-Shar’i) with which Allah tested the believers.

His—Mighty and Majestic—saying: {Indeed, Allah will test you with a river.