And the Creator 1 appeared to His creation with two attributes: an attribute that resembles the one manifested to, though it is not truly of his kind—which is the image; and an attribute that proves that it is the Essence of the Manifesting One—which is capability (al-qudrah). Here, the meaning of “It is He, but He is not it” becomes clear to us. “It”—meaning the visible image that from which the capability—distinct from human capability—appeared, “is He,” meaning the Creator, the Exalted, among whose attributes and unique characteristics is the subjugating power that appeared from the image, the likes of which creation is incapable of bringing forth. “But He is not it,” meaning the Creator, the Exalted, is not the image from the perspective of encompassment and entireness, nor on the basis that He is a human form. For He resembled humans not from the perspective of being a human, but rather the light manifested and personified in a human form, not in the sense that this form was of the nature of humans with its density and physicality.
And a realistic example I present to prove the validity of this theory and the theory of manifestation is that Gabriel—peace be upon him—by the consensus of all religious individuals across their various doctrines, is a spiritual angel, meaning abstract from the characteristics of matter and its impurities. Yet, he appeared to the Lady Mary the Virgin in a human form, and the Creator, the Exalted, mentioned that in His Mighty Book through His saying, Glory be to Him:[“And mention in the Book, Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen. Then We sent to her Our Angel, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man.”]2 , meaning he took form and appeared to her in a complete human form. So if Gabriel, who is the Holy Spirit and a creature of Allah—in whom capability is bestowed and borrowed—was able to represent himself in a human form to others, then how [can it not be] so for the Creator, the Exalted, in whom capability is essential and spontaneous?