Among them is his bringing the decayed skull back to life and its speaking to him, saying: “you are the Commander of the Faithful, the Master of the Successors, and the Imam of the righteous in both The Exoteric (Al-Zahir) and The Esoteric (Al-Batin), and you are far greater than can be described.” Within this last phrase lies an aspect of transcendence (tanzih).

And among them is his burning of the individuals who explicitly declared his lordship, and their being brought back to life after being crushed and scattered into the air; the proof of this is his saying: (By Allah, I burned them and He brought them back to life). As for his saying to them: (Retract your words and repent to Allah), this falls under the category of counsel and warning to them due to their explicit declaration of his divinity within earshot of those others who did not possess sufficient readiness to recognize him through this miraculous power or to believe in his lordship based upon it; whereas they should have utilized precautionary dissimulation (taqiyyah) and concealment (kitman) instead of this explicit declaration and public announcement.