He replied: 'He alters the vision of creation so that they perceive Him in accordance with their own images; thus, they behold purely based upon their own spiritual state and actions. Do you not see that they used to behold the Messenger of Allah eating food, yet they could never perceive any bodily waste [najwa] proceeding from him?'"

And Master Abu Sa'id stated in his Masā'il: 'Allah fashioned Iblis from the fire of doubt [Nar al-Shakk] as a spirit without a physical body [Ruhan bila badanin]; he is neither elevated unto the heavens nor cast down unto the earth, but is suspended stationary within the air [qa'imun bi-al-hawa'], while the Lord remains entirely veiled from him.'

Shaykh Ahmad Salman al-Khatib stated in his book al-Uslub: 'Our Shaykh and jurist, Shaykh Husayn Ahmad, narrated to me that he asked his teacher, Shaykh Ibrahim Murhij—Allah sanctified them both—concerning Iblis: how does he appear alongside every cosmic cycle/dome [Qubbah] in obstinate opposition and adversarial defiance, and how does he possess the capacity for divergence and structural confrontation? His answer to him was: "Verily, that entity which appeared in the very first dome was struck down by eternal misery, inversion,