sustained him by the physical elements [al-arkan], and made them a similitude of those intellectual substances branching out from the shadows of cosmic realities—which are the Universal Intellect [al-'Aql al-Kulli], the Universal Soul [al-Nafs al-Kulliyyah], the Universal Word [al-Kalimah al-Kulliyyah], and the Universal Form [al-Surah al-Kulliyyah]. Each of them possesses a form that expresses it, termed Nature, which are heat, moisture, coldness, and dryness. And these four natures possess four personified loci, which are fire, air, water, and earth. And all of these expanses, elements, and shadows And forms, and personified loci, branched out from the Divine manifestations from which this terrestrial form was impressed; for this reason, it was termed Nature, thus becoming an effect fashioned after the likeness of the Comprehensive Form [al-surah al-jami'ah] that encompasses the universal forms, universal realities, and universal secrets.

Then he said: "In sum, the bodily organs are branches that give indication of foundational origins, yet they are not identical to those origins, nor are those origins identical to them. The parable for this is that when the light of the sun extends to a burning glass [a magnifying lens], it produces a fire;