I say: What he—may God sanctify him—intended by "form" is what God Almighty depicted in His discourse in His Mighty Book regarding the divine esoteric realities (al-Haqa'iq al-Batinah al-Ilahiyyah) through those exoteric, formal, and sensory names used to bring [the meanings] closer to understandings. This is like His Almighty's informing about Paradise, its fruits, its rivers, its houris, its youths, its garments, foods, drinks, palaces, and other worldly forms that humans use and enjoy, so that we may use their forms as evidence for their luminous reality (Haqiqatiha al-Nuraniyyah). For the luminous people of Paradise enjoy the esoteric aspects of food, drink, fruits, flowers, garments, houris, and youths—which are His Almighty's luminous manifestations (Zuhuratihi al-Nuraniyyah) and the manifestations of the worlds of His holiness, knowledge, remembrance, and the emanations of lights—just as the people of the world enjoy their exoteric aspects, let alone the stripping off of the mortal human shirts (al-Qumsan al-Bashariyyah al-Faniyah) and the wearing of the eternal luminous shirts. And measure by that what He Almighty mentioned in His Mighty Book of forms.

And similar to it is what the scholar-philosopher Hasan ibn Hamza al-Shirazi—may God sanctify him—reported in his book titled Kitab al-Tanbih [The Book of Admonition], reporting from the divine sages (al-Hukama' al-Ilahiyyin), saying: "Indeed, sensory things (al-Hissiyyat) are crossings (Ma'abir) to the intelligibles (al-'Aqliyyat).