taught Adam all the names} (Al-Baqarah 31). And the Prophet (PBUH) said: "I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate."

Know that He (the Exalted) directed the discourse in His Mighty Book toward many persons through these two names—the Sun and the Moon—just as He (Glory be to Him) directed the discourse toward many persons through the names of the Prophets, the names of the five acts of worship, and the names of things such as the fig, the olive, the palm trees, the mountains, the winds, the lands, the heavens, and similar established, praised, and censured names.

Know that every discourse among those discourses involving the names of the Sun and the Moon points to a meaning different from the other, or to a person different from the other. However, the People of the Outward [Ahl al-Zahir]—who are the people of deviation and misguidance—measured His words (the Exalted) with a single measure and interpreted them according to a single meaning: they believed that the censured Sun and Moon in His Mighty Book are the celestial Sun and Moon, not other than them.

As for the praised suns and moons in His verses, they [the literalists] have neglected them and left them as if they were nothing, and they did not believe in them. This is because—as He (the Exalted) informed regarding them in Surah al-Hajj: