Abu Yazid al-Bistami said: "The servant does not cease to be a gnostic as long as he is ignorant, but when his ignorance disappears, his gnosis disappears." And intoxication also expresses the dominance of love and the total engrossment of the lover in the majesty of the beloved's beauty by his absence from his awareness, and it is the station of the wayfarer. Sobriety (al-Sahw) is the recovery from intoxication, and it is a station higher than the first, and its possessor is more perfect; for intoxication is the station of the women upon seeing Joseph, while sobriety is the station of Zulaikha.

And the flash (al-Bariq) according to the Sufis is the transient light that descends from the Most Holy Presence and is extinguished quickly, and it is among the beginnings and principles of unveiling (al-Kashf). And intoxication according to them is an amazement (dahshatan) that attaches itself to the secret of the wayfarer upon witnessing the beauty of the beloved suddenly, and sobriety is the recovery from this intoxication, and they are two stations for the wayfarer.

The first: is what occurred to the women upon witnessing the master Joseph, for they cut their hands.