'The houses of light and the attributes of manifestation, and the mine of indication and the tongues of expression: He veiled you by them from Him, and called you from them to Him.

They are not Him in gathering, nor in encompassment, nor in restriction.'

[296] Everyone sees Him according to the extent of his knowledge and attains Him according to the amount of his understanding."

And in another narration narrated from the Master Abu Shu'ayb, and that is that he said: I heard my Master al-Hasan al-Askari - Exalted is His Might - say:

"We are the manifest (zahir) of Allah; we are not other than His hidden (batin). And we are His instrument, and from us His sun shone. No time preceded us, and there is no ultimate goal behind us for a seeker. In us eternity became eternal, and every number of oneness was completed. Our meaning (ma'nana) [is one] even if our names differed, and eternity (al-qidam) is the light of our essence even if our attributes multiplied. Whoever denies us has denied the manifestation, and we are the witness and the witnessed for his seeker."

[297] And from him: that he said: