Souls are dislocated out of their human bodies into botanical constructs, which simultaneously functions as their sensory torment and the nutritional foundation [qiwam] of human bodies—such as wheat, barley, and everything that the earth sprouts, alongside everything that emerges from the products of re-embodied [al-Naskh] and transfigured [al-Maskh] organisms. Thus, whatever proceeds from the re-embodied livestock, such as manure, dung, and what decomposes from them—I mean from the re-embodied and transfigured kingdoms—constitutes the biological maintenance and foundation of human bodies."'

[200] And al-Mufaddal stated: 'I asked al-Sadiq—Mighty is His Majesty—concerning the diverse biological classifications [al-Qishash]. He replied: "As for the classifications, they are sevenfold: birds, fish, livestock, predatory beasts, creeping vermin, minerals, and metals. The disbeliever routinely descends into each distinct category among them seventy times. The purest of birds in flesh and egg is that which possesses gizzards [qawais] and crops [hawasil]; the purest and finest of fish is that which possesses scales [fulus]; and the purest and finest of livestock in flesh and milk is that which possesses a multi-chambered ruminant stomach [mukarashan].