This is exactly as He reported in His saying, the Exalted: {It was said to her, 'Enter the palace hall.' But when she saw it, she deemed it to be a body of water and uncovered her shins.”} 1 It was not a body of water as she saw it; rather, it was merely made to appear so to her imagination—and far be it from Bilqis to be trapped within this imagination.
Our Sheikh Abu Abd Allah, Allah sanctify his person, clearly demonstrated that everything we have perceived within the Sublime Essence is an imagination within an imagination (khayāl bi-khayāl), through his saying:
"And Allah manifests in five aspects of imagination (makhīlah): through sociability, poverty, and the ailment of ophthalmia [sore eyes]."
Sheikh Ibrahim Abd al-Latif, Allah sanctified his secret, said in the commentary:
"Makhīlah: meaning resembling imagination, or analogous to it, which is the dream-like phantom (al-ṭayf al-manāmī)."
And the Sheikh, Allah sanctify his person, said in verse: