upon which the doctrine of the sheikh of the trustworthy gnostics, our Sheikh Abu Abdullah al-Husayn ibn Hamdan, Allah purified his person, was established.

It has escaped your mind, O noble brother, that you have referred to a deficient one who falls short of plunging into such a matter, and you have descended upon an incapable one who is unable to swim in the depths of this sea, because the subject of negation and affirmation in the knowledge of the Self is a rugged path and a dangerous course, and none will achieve its knowledge except those whom Allah, glorified is His glory, has encompassed with His grace and care, and the lights of His guidance have shone in their hearts.

As Sheikh Ibrahim Abd al-Latif, Allah sanctified him, said, none will achieve the knowledge of negation and affirmation except he who has drunk from the spring of life, ridden the vessel of salvation, and stood firm in the slippery places of doubts, for this matter is not a law for every enterer, and none will perceive it except one after one, and they are the elite of the elite who have approached deliverance from these cages, reached the highest stations of knowledge and gnosis, and arrived at the lofting degrees of faith. So where are we from those firmly grounded,