Note 233 — Chapter XII

The word used in the original is تجلى tajelí, signifying here properly “a sudden burst upon the eyes, a transitory vision.” This word occurs, evidently with this meaning, in the following passage of Sâdi’s Gulistan, “Rose-garden,” (chap. II. tale 9), which at the same time elucidates the state of the Súfí above alluded to: “The vision (of God) which the pious enjoy, consists of manifestation and occultation; it shows itself, and vanishes from our looks,”—Verse. Thou showest thy countenance and thou concealest it. Thou enhancest thy value and sharpenest our fire. When I behold thee without an intervention, it affects me in such a manner that I lose my road. It kindles a flame, and then quenches it by sprinkling water; on which account you see me sometimes in ardent flames, sometimes immersed in the waves.

There are different sorts of تجليات tajelíat, “manifestations,” and whenever the mystic has attained the first degrees of such divine favors, he receives no more his subsistence but by supernatural ways.