He said: "O Ammar, do not speak of the matter and the command and the prohibition that you see from me, and the submission of the people to my command—for I am in their eyes as they perceive me to be, yet I am as you see me [now] despite how they perceive me. Furthermore, He transforms me into types of punishment from various metamorphoses (mamsukh) that I cannot count." Throughout all of this, [Mu'awiya] was speaking to me and saying: "O Ammar, Ali ibn Abi Talib has transferred me through these states many times, and He surely sees me within them; so how can I escape from this?" I wanted to say to him: "You denied the Truth, O Mu'awiya," but my Lord knew what was in my soul and said to me: "O Ammar, ﴿And indeed, it is large [difficult] except for the humbly submissive [to Allah].﴾" So I remained silent. Then Mu'awiya vanished, and I never saw him again, nor any of the Prophets who had been present. My Lord said: "Enough for you, O Ammar." I said: "This Will belongs to You; had You performed this while You were in Kufa, You would have been spared the march to Siffin." He said: "O Ammar, are you [not] in Kufa?" I said: "I have no knowledge [of that]." He said: "Look."

I looked, and behold, He was sitting in His mosque in Kufa, in the spot where He used to pass judgment. I said: "There is no power or strength except in You, O my Lord." He said: "O Ammar, your Lord does not shift nor depart from His time or His being."