Our saying "How can the Inward be Outward" is like our saying "How can the Night be when it is Day?" or "How can the Day be when it is Night?" and "Where is the Day when the Night darkens?" and "Where is the Night when the Day shines?" And this is a parable that alerts the one with sight that the Night and the Day have no reality of their own except through the setting and rising of the Sun. Before the formation of the Sun, its rising and its setting, there was neither Night nor Day. If there were no Night or Day, then no one would know the nature of the "How-ness" of the Eternal Duration (Dahr) or its quiddity—let alone the Worshiped God, who is transcendent above all "How-ness," quiddities, and everything.

He is prior to the Sun, the Night, the Day, Inwardness, Manifestation, Before, After, Pre-eternity, Duration, First-ness, Last-ness, Beginning, Ending, and other [concepts]. He is transcendent above these names. He is the Witnessed Unseen (al-Ghayb al-Mashhud), the Present Inward, and the Outward just as He is from His Absolute (Mutlaq) aspect—not as we see Him from our Restricted (Muqayyad) aspect. He inspires the intellects to know Him without [complete] perception, and the eyes see His existence without encompassing Him.

These parables indicate to the wise and intelligent the limit where the knowledge of creatures is cut off, and that the Creator is too great