This is to indicate that he is the closest of things to Him, just as a son is the closest of people to his father through kinship, and that the Almighty has cleared Him [of literal biological associations] in the Sūrah al-Ṣamadiyya [Sūrah al-Ikhlāṣ] so that we may infer that naming him 'the Son' is to indicate this meaning only [i.e., spiritual proximity].

As for the meaning of his description as 'The Only' (al-Waḥīd), it means that he is unique in his proximity to his Meaning (Maʿnā); nothing resembles him in closeness to Him, nor equals him in his rank at all. The Meaning did not originate from the light of His essence any other than him.

This is confirmed by what our Master al-Jallī—may Allah sanctify him—established in his epistle Bāṭin al-Ṣalāt (The Inward of Prayer), saying: 'The [letter] M is God for all creatures, and the [letter] ʿA [ʿAyn] is God for Muḥammad.'

As for the meaning of naming him the Word of Allah, it is according to the saying of the Almighty in Sūrah Āl ʿImrān:

{When the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary—distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near."} (Āl ʿImrān: 45)

The meaning of that is that his station in relation to his Meaning is like speech in relation to the speaker. This is a parable to indicate that he is