Another sage said: "Verily, the types of animals in this lower world are merely shadows and likenesses (ashbah wa-mithalat) of those forms and creatures that exist in the world of the celestial spheres and the vastness of the heavens. This is exactly how the carvings and images found upon the faces of walls and ceilings are shadows and likenesses of the forms of these fleshly, living animals. Indeed, the proportion of these fleshly creatures to those celestial creatures—whose substances are pure and luminous—is like the proportion of these carved images to these living animals."

Another said: "If there were creatures there who possessed no hearing, no sight, no intellect, no understanding, no discernment (tamyiz), then they would be as 'deaf, dumb, and blind'."

Another sage said: "If they possess hearing and sight, yet there are no sounds there to be heard nor delightful melodies to be enjoyed, then their hearing and sight would be in vain and without purpose. But if they do not possess [physical] hearing and sight, yet they still hear and see,