The evidence of that is the saying of the Messenger - exalted is his might - to him: "You were with the prophets secretly, and with me openly."

[239] And from it: "If the cover were removed for me, I would not increase in certainty. So ask me, for indeed I have with me the knowledge of the first ones and the last ones. Now, by Allah, if the cushion were folded for me, then I sat upon it, I would surely judge between the people of the Torah by their Torah, and between the people of the Gospel by their Gospel, and between the people of the Psalms by their Psalms, and between the people of the Criterion (Furqan) by their Criterion, until every book calls out that Ali judged in me by the judgment of Allah, and says 'O Lord, indeed Ali decreed by Your decree.'" Then he said: "Ask me before you lose me, for by the One who split the seed and created the soul, if you asked me about verse by verse, [whether] it was revealed in a night or in a day it was revealed, its Meccan and its Medinan, its travel-related and its residence-related, its abrogating and its abrogated, its decisive and its ambiguous, its interpretation and its revelation."