ranks of the Four Hundred Gates [Daraj al-Abwab al-Arba'ah Mi'ah], which is the Pillar of the Phantom. He remains stationary there until he is granted permission for release and orbital movement, whereupon he returns to his natural active state.'

And Shaykh Yusuf al-Raddad stated in his treatise—Allah sanctified his soul: One of the sages was asked concerning the Retentive Faculty [al-Quwwah al-Hafizah] for every object of knowledge—the faculty established over preservation, the intellect, and recollection, from which intelligence and gnosis are ignited? He replied: 'Verily, Allah the Exalted fashioned the two ears, the two eyes, and the two nostrils as breathing channels [mutanaffasatan] and spacious structural layers that are entirely unmixed with any material nutrition. He placed them in a state of harmonious conjunction within the heart and the brain, establishing between the two a Pillar of Light extended from the heart to the brain. Both the heart and the brain draw from that Light via their respective faculties, while the Light continuously reinforces and illuminates both of them through a subtle, essential power [quwwah jawhariyyah latifah] emanating from the Supreme, Primordial Power. That power remains permanently linked to its source of origin and tethered to that from which it