Shams Part 4

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﴾ Way of those whom You have favored, who are not objects of Your wrath and are not those who are led astray, amen ﴿, [way] that You observe with the eye of Your solicitude. Way of those who cling to good guidance and are content with what they have ﴾ Way of those whom you have favored ﴿. Grant us from Thee the gifts of the true, and cause us to witness those things which the martyrs and the righteous witness. Give us Your help with the angels of victory, certainty and stability, just as You said in Your explicit book, descended upon Your Prophet sent: ﴾ Your Lord has strengthened you by sending down three thousand angels. And if you have patience and fear of God, and enemies come to you unexpectedly, your Lord will help you with five thousand angels appointed ﴿1. Give us control of beings, elements and structure. Let them emanate upon us by the emanation of Thy benefits and Thy favors, my God, blessings that may be repeated to us among the blessings of the Hereafter. Do not put us among those who are lost, those who lead astray, or those who are far from Your door, and do not put us in the group of the unfaithful, the unjust, and the lost. My God, I ask Thee, O Helper of those who cry for help, to succor me, thou shalt read it seven times and to reach me, my God, with Thy hidden and arcane subtlety, verily Thou art Who conceals Himself under the arcanum of Thy hidden and arcane subtlety, and Who hid Himself, showed Himself and became diffuse (‘afà)2, Who satisfied and fulfilled, ﴾ There is no god but You. Glorified are You! Verily I have been of the unrighteous ﴿ thou shalt recite it seven times. Bring me to Your perfect, invulnerable, impregnable, suitable hiding place, preserver, concealer, protector, and […]. Immerse me in the breadth of Thy sustenance, proceeding from the cupboards of Thy mercy that extends to all things. Relieve me from all cares, O Who relieves the distressed, cheer me up with Thy mercy, O most Gracious of the merciful, šahat, ašhat, ašhat, alyaqsaÐ, alwa¬ā, al ‘aŷal, yā¬īmūn, wayā¬madān, alwa¬ā, yāsmadān, alwa¬ā, al’aŷal, take care of disturbing So-and-so. I conjure you by the very power of God, by the light of God’s face, by the Fateship of the Book, by the Book of God, and by that which the Calamus decrees with God, that you may answer me and hasten to solve my problem in such and such. When He wills something, His Order is to say, “Be!” and it is. Glory be to Him in Whose Hands is the dominion of all things, and to Whom you shall return seven times.”

[VIRTUDES PECULIARES DE LA FĀTIHA]

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You should know, O may Allah guide us, that the secrets of the noble Fatia have virtues peculiar to splendid, as the Messenger of Allah said, may Allah bless him and save him: “Whoever recites it when he lies on
the bed and recites beside it ﴾ Say: He is God, he is the One ﴿4 and the two hard protectors (almu’awwi2atāni)5,
he is safe from any evil, except death.”

1 Cor. III:1245.
2 The verb ‘afà’ has the peculiarity of signifying these two opposite things: to show oneself and to hide. 3 Cor. xxxvi:812.
4 Cor. CXII.
5 Cor. CXIII and CXIV.

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And it is related of Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: “He became ill to©’Alī 1, may Allah be pleased with both, and the Prophet was worried, so Allah, may He be exalted, revealed to him to read a surah in which the [letter] fā’ 2 was not in it, because the fā’ is the letter of misfortunes (al-āfāt), that he should recite it forty times over a vessel in which there was water, and then wash with it his hands, his feet, his face, his head, and the hidden and visible parts of his body, for truly God, exalted be He, would bring out of him that which made him suffer.”

And a certain wise man said that he who writes the Fateship of the Book in a clean vessel, erases it with water, and a sick man drinks from it, heals, if God permits, exalted be He! And to those who recite it continually, may God be exalted, purify their interior from all the evils of the soul and from diabolical suggestions: Whoever writes it on a crystal cup, erases it with pure balsam oil, eats the oil seventy times 3 for breakfast with the oil, and anoints with it those who suffer from sciatica or have a sore back, Well, that will be good for him. And it is, with God’s help, beneficial for flatus, paralysis, and all diseases cold and wet, spiritual and bodily. And whoever writes the Fateship of the Book in a golden vessel in the early hours of Friday, with musk, saffron, and camphor, erases it with rosewater and puts it in a jar, and then, when he wants to go to visit a king or a ruler, he anoints his face with it, he will obtain the acceptance and affection of the one whom he goes to see; and if he visits the person whose wickedness causes him fear, and recites the Fate, then he will be safe from his wickedness, God willing, exalted be he!

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Ibn Abī al’ha’bī 4 was suffering from pain in his waist, and he was told: make use of the basis of the Qur’an, which is the Philosophy of the Book. And they heard Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, say: “Everything has a basis, and the
basis of the Qur’an is Fate, and the basis of Fate, and the basis of Fate, is ‘In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful,’ so when […] and suffer, make use of Fate, healing yourself by the command of God, exalted be He!”

The sage Ibn al-Qayyim5 said in his book Every disease has a remedy: “Really the best medicinal application of Fatia is the one in which you encounter [great difficulty] in healing. I was for a time in Mecca, suffering from an illness for which I could find no physician or remedy, and I said: I am going to treat myself with the Phytia: I did this and I was cured, and I did the same with one who suffered from a great pain, observing in it a prodigious effect, for having procured this for those who suffered a great pain, many of them have been quickly healed by the command of Allah, exalted be He, and by the blessing of Fate.”

The scholars in God said that whoever recites ﴾ In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful ﴿ when he goes to visit a mighty man nineteen times, Allah, exalted be He, saves him from

1 Al-asan©b. ‘Alī b. Abī Æālib (6245/66970), son of ‘Alī and Fatima, and therefore grandson of the Prophet. He is the second imām of Shi’ism.

2 Note that the letter fā’ is one of those absent in Surah al-Fāti¬a.
3 That is, break seventy fasts with this oil.
4 We believe that it could refer to Ibn Abi Šayba (d. 849), an Iraqi historian and traditionist.
5 These are Ibn Qayyim alJawziyya (d. 1350), a famous theologian and jurisconsult ¬anbalī, and his book alDā’ wal

dawā’, (in our original appears “Kull dā’ lahu dāwā'”), a medical work in which the healing properties of Fāti¬a are also discussed at length.

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his wickedness. And whoever writes it the number of times of its letters1 in the first hour of Friday, will be protected from the attacks of men and jinn.

And according to a reliable tradition, to whom he says three times every day: “In the name of God, the best of Names, in the Name of God, Lord of earth and heaven, in the Name of God, He by Whose Name harms him nothing on earth or in heaven, He is the Hearer, the Wise, “God, exalted be He!”, saves him from black magic (alsi¬r), poison and disease, and protects him from the misfortunes of the night and day”2.

A certain wise man said: “He who writes the letters that begin the surahs on a crystal cup, erases it with rainwater, and a poisoned man drinks from it, is freed from his disease, by the command of God, exalted be He!

[VIRTUDES PECULIARES DE OTRAS ALEYAS Y SURAS QURANICA]

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The Prophet, God bless and save him, said: “No one writes the verse of the throne on a possession or home without preventing the Devil from approaching it.”3

And the Prophet said, “God bless him and save him!”: “Whoever recites the verse of the throne before leaving his house, no misfortune will befall him until he returns.”

And the Prophet, God bless him and save him, said: “Whoever puts his hand on his head and says ﴾ He is God. There is no god but Him. He knows the unknown and the apparent. He is the Gracious, the Merciful, unto the end of the surah, hath the healing of all sickness, save poison.”5

Al-Mas’ūdī6 said: “I have heard that whoever recites Surah of Victory 7 on the first night of the month of Ramadan in his supererogatory prayer (1⁄2alāt altaÐawwu’), Allah, may He be exalted, protects him that year from misfortunes.”

The šayj Šihāb alDīn alSuhrawardī 8 said: “I have heard that the recitation of the surah of Constellations9 in the mid-evening prayer (al’a1⁄2r) is the cure for pustules (aldamāmīl). And who

1 That is, as in the previous peculiar virtue of basmala, nineteen times, for the nineteen letters of which it consists.

2 We do not know whether it refers to a prophetic tradition; in any case, it is not found in the compendiums of adīdī£ that we use.

3 Cf. Bukharī, nos. 3033 and 4624, and alTirmi2ī, no. 2805.
4 Cor. Lix:22.
5 We do not find this saying. However, in Bukharī (no. 5256), Muslim (no. 4104), Ibn Maja (no. 3439), etc., the

Prophet attributes this virtue to the neguilla.
6 ‘Alī b. al©usayn alMas’ūdī (d. 956), traveller and polygrapher to whom a vast body of work of various

thematic.
7 Cor. XLVIII.

8 Šihāb alDīn Abū ©afs ‘Umar alSuhrawardī (11451234), one of the most prominent Sufis in Islam. 9 Cor. lxxxv.

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he writes the Phitia and erases it with water, for in everything that is combined with water his blessing will appear clearly. And as for its effects in the literal way, for whoever writesit 1 with water in a crystal cup after understanding the meanings of its letters, and drinks from it during a fast of twenty-five days, God, exalted be He, opens for him a door of Grace externally and internally.

And in it [Fāti¬a] also resides the virtue to restrain the powerful, if it is written after a period of purity and fasting of five days, together with the verse of Creation, which are His words, exalted be He: ﴾Your Lord is God, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days ﴿2 The verse to the end, on a clean parchment, on Friday while the preacher is in the syrup, and hangs it over his head, God causes him to obtain Grace, and causes him to cause trembling in hearts and legs without being harmed. And therein lies a subtle secret for those who are forgetful if they use it in drinking. And if it is written and put in a house, no harmful reptiles will enter it. And he who writes it with an ascendant suitable for the sympathy of the hearts, and what is intended with the ascendant, according to those who observe the stars, is the spiritual power inherent in it, but if you reach the strength of faith in the heart, that is, the manifest force of the nafs, then it is better than the astral ascendant and more effective, Don’t you see how the physical effects are the most intense in the area that corresponds to them? [He will obtain what he desires in regard to the sympathy of the hearts], and this will happen with him who has obtained the understanding of the secrets of letters. Beware of ritual impurity in addressing each of these matters, whether pertaining to numbers or letters, and you will find their aspect of worth. God is wiser!

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This is his image:3

[VIRTUDES DEL NOMBRE ‘EL SUTIL’]

And among His Names is ‘the Subtle One’ (al-LaÐīf), whom Allah, exalted be He, sent down in four places: in the surah of the Flocks is His saying, exalted be He!: ﴾ The glances do not reach Him, but He reaches the looks. He is the Subtle, the Shrewd ﴿4. This verse is beneficial for one who is frightened by an enemy, an evil one, or a mighty one: let him continually recite His name in the morning and evening one hundred and twenty-nine times, and after that he should recite the above-mentioned verse.

1 In the Arabic text: “he who recites it”
2 Cor: vii:53.
3 Probably due to a gap in the text, the image of a square follows about which nothing is clear to us

in the text, and apparently has no connection with the Fate. 4 Cor. VI:104.

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Fig. 28

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The second is in the Surah of Yūsuf: whoever fears an adversity, a misfortune, a difficulty, a restlessness, a worry or an affliction, then let him invoke the name ‘the Subtle’ one hundred and twenty-nine times, saying after that: ﴾ My Lord is Subtle in what He wills. He is the All-Knowing, the Wise One ﴿1, and Allah, exalted be He, will deliver him from adversity, misfortune, worry, and affliction, and Allah, exalted be He, will grant him rich possessions, authority, and power.

The third is in Surah ﴾ ©ā’ mīm ‘ayn sīn qāf ﴿: whoever runs out of earthly possessions, becomes impoverished and has need of what is in the hands of the people, let him perform the 2ikr of the Name ‘the Subtle’ in the morning and in the evening one hundred and twenty-nine times, and then he will say: ﴾ God is Subtle with His servants. Provide for whomever it wants. He is the Mighty One, the Mighty One ﴿2, and Allah, exalted be He, will provide him with abundant riches that he will not lose.

The fourth is in the Surah of Lordship: whoever claims to occupy a high office of […] or whatever resembles it, let him frequently recite ‘the Subtle’ the number of times mentioned, and recite His saying, exalted be He!: ﴾ Should not He who has created and is the Subtle, the Sagacious, have knowledge? ﴿3.

[APART ON THE HEALING PROPERTIES AND VIRTUES OF THE FĀTIHA]

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And to return to what we had for our object of discussion about the beneficial uses (fawā’id) of the blessed and noble Fatia, if it is written and erased with rainwater, and the sick man wets his face and hands with it at once, he drinks of the water three times and says: “Heal, You are the Healer; enough, You are Enough; Heal, You are the Healer” three times, heals, unless the time of death has come for him. And if he who has palpitations and tremors in his heart drinks from that water, he is calmed by God’s command, exalted be He, and his pain disappears.

If it is written with musk and saffron in a glass container, it is dissolved with rose water and whoever has a disease drinks from it, it is cured. Or, if the foolish child drinks it completely for seven days and while fasting, his foolishness disappears from him and he learns all that he hears, God willing, exalted be He!

And if it is written with musk in a glass vessel, it is erased with the rainwater that takes place in the month of December (kānūn), crush in it ku¬l of I1⁄2fahān, and one who is short-sighted applies the ointment to his eyelids, for it clears his sight, preserves the health of his eyes, and makes his diseases disappear4. And if you add to this the bile of a white rooster and the bile of a black hen, and someone applies the ointment to his eyelids, he sees the spirits5 and they tell him how much he does not know.

1 Cor. XII:100.
2 Cor. XLII:17.
3 Cor. LXVII:14. The name LaÐīf appears in two other surahs that are not mentioned in the text: xxii:61 and xxxi:15.
4 The use of ku¬l as an ointment in ophthalmology is also well documented in the medical works of the

Time (the ophthalmologist is also called Alka¬¬āl). On the other hand, al¢a’alībī asserted that the kuʹl stone from I1⁄2fahān was of extraordinary quality (see E. W.IEDEMANN, “Ku¬l”, in EI 2).

5 Lit. “spiritual persons”.

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Whoever gives himself to its recitation night and day, laziness and discouragement disappear from him, God willing, exalted be He, and he will not have pain in his eyes.

If you write the Phi¬a in a clean container, erase it with rose water, and apply a few drops to the ear that hurts, the pain is soothed by God’s command, exalted be He!

And if it is written with pure oil (duhn) and recited over that oil seventy times, it prevents flatus and paralysis. And if the sick person is anointed with it, he is cured of everything that is serious, for there are countless beneficial uses in it. And it also has a magnificent effect on love and reconciliation.

Another of his virtues, whoever has a need of Allah, may He be exalted, and wishes to turn to Him, will recite it in order, slowly, with faith and sincerity seven times, being oriented towards the qibla in a state of full purity and totally concentrated, after having prayed two rak’at in the evening prayer (al’a1⁄2r). He shall recite in each rak’at the Fāti¬a of the Book and the Surah of the Cult three times. Then he will ask God, exalted be He, for his need whatever it may be, resolving himself in any place He prefers, God willing, exalted be He! And if the one who recites it is in the daytime, night will not come until it is fulfilled, and if he recites it at night, he will not dawn until his problem is solved, if God wills, exalted be He, for God will favor him: ﴾ God provides for whom He wills without limitation ﴿1.

And among those virtues which have been tried and proved to be true, he who recites it between the dawn and evening prayer forty-one times, and persists in it for forty days without exceeding that number, God solves his problem, whatever it may be, and grants him a healthy child even though he is powerless. But Allah, praise and exalted be He, is wiser, so try to understand that and you will prosper, God willing, exalted be He!

These are the verses taken from the book The Treasure of the Disciples by Ibn Sab’īn2, which he took from Imām ‘Ali b. Abī Æālib (may Allah, may He be exalted, have mercy on him), on the excellence of the noble Fate,
and they are these:

Whenever you find yourself begging for sustenance
and getting what you want from a slave or a free person.

You get what you pray for quickly
and are free from objection and refusal.

For indeed in the Philosophy of the Book is
any secret in which you place your hopes.

Do not separate yourself from his teaching after the night prayer, the dawn, the noon, the sunset.

1 Cor. II:210; xxiv:37.

2 Peripatetic philosopher, Sufi and well-known detractor of Averroes, born in Murcia in 12178 and died in Mecca in 1270 (so it is somewhat later than the time of alBūnī). The title of this book (Kanz almurīdīn) does not appear among the works attributed to him, although I do find a Kanz almugrimīn fīl¬urūf walawfāq (ISMĀ’ĪL PASHA, Hadiyyat al’Ārifīna, i, p. 503). On the other hand, the Berlin manuscript attributes these verses to alGazālī.

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And after the prayer of each evening, 5 to ninety times followed by ten plus 1.

Thus you will obtain the power and magnificence you desire, great respect and high power.

A protection that the nights do not alter with any incident that occurs.

Prosperity and continued well-being,
for you will be safe from the suffering of all evil.

You will not need anything from anyone,
you will not suffer any unpleasant situation or harm.

Free from nakedness, hunger, or incapacity, 10 and alien to the tyranny of those who prohibit and command.

That way you live well throughout your life
and live beautifully at all times.

If you do, that which
will make you do without Zayd and ‘Amr will come to you.

You will continue to be embellished at all times
and live blessed for a lifetime.

[EEXERCISE ASCETIC AND PRAYER OF THE FĀTIHA]

You should know, God help us to fulfill His obedience, that in order to carry out the spiritual exercise of Fate, you will retire to a clean and dark place, where no one will see you except Allah, praise and exalted be He! You shall fast three days beginning on a Sunday, and you shall not eat or drink anything in which there is a breath of life (rū¬) or anything that proceeds from it. Then you shall break the fast with barley bread and oil without filling your stomach, and at the end of each prayer you shall recite the Fatia a hundred times. The prayer you will say is the following:

“Lord, bring me into the depths of the sea of Your Oneness and into the interior of Your Oneness, until I come out of it at the moment of the execution of Your Mercy, and then the radiance of Nearness will be found on my face thanks to the effects of Your Mercy, respected by Your Prestige, strengthened by Your Strength and magnified by Your Power. Clothe me in the trappings of Power and Acceptance, facilitate upon me the condescension of Union and Arrival, impose upon me the crown of Charisma, and sow harmony between me and Your loved ones in this abode and in the Hereafter. O Sovereign, before Thee bow the necks of the mighty, O King of this world and the Hereafter, B’ŠQY, B’ŠQMY, NBDKN, NBDSN. God took Ibrāhīm as a friend, spoke clearly to Mūsà2 and distinguished our lord [Muṣammad] with the

1 As the Berlin manuscript in the margin makes clear, the meaning of this verse is that the Fateia is to be recited after the Fajr 25 times, after the noon prayer 10 times, after the evening prayer 20 times, after the sunset prayer another 20, and at the end of the evening prayer 25 times, making a total of 100 times a day, according to the custom of al-Gazālī (to whom the verses are attributed in this manuscript). See also the indications given in the next invocation with the Fatia, on the following page.

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2 Cf. Cor. IV:124, 162.

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Nobility: ﴾ Peace: word of a Compassionate Lord ﴿1, O ﴾ King of the Day of Judgment, we worship You alone and ask You for help. Lead us to the straight path, the way of those whom You have favored, those who are not the object of Your wrath nor those who are led astray ﴿ “.

And after the three days, a cotton flake shall appear before you in the mirab, and it shall spread out and occupy the whole place, and it shall remain [in this way] for a day. Then a man will come out from under it and say to you, “Peace be upon you, what do you need?” Do not ask of him for earthly things, and say to him, “I desire the name and the seal from you,” and you will demand his consent.

And the recitation [of the Fātia] shall take place after the Fajr thirty times, after the noon prayer thirty times, after the evening prayer thirty times, and after the sunset prayer ten times, and after that you shall supplicate with this blessed invocation only once, saying:

” ﴾ Praises to God, Lord of the worlds ﴿, praise that brings me a loan (qarÅ) before the Lord of the worlds2, ﴾ the Gracious, the Merciful ﴿, Who extended the regions and distinguished Mūsà as the interlocutor of Who will raise the bones when they are eaten away, for both are glorious and lofty Names, healing of every sickness and sickness, wealth of every destitute, way to the gardens of Paradise and salvation from the torment of Hell. ﴾ King of Judgment Day ﴿, he has no partner in Sovereignty, no rival, no accomplice, no helper. ﴾ We worship You and ask You for help ﴿, we worship in affirmation and we recognize negligence. I bear witness that there is no god but Allāh, only Him, without an associate; and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger, who was sent as a glad tiding-iron and admonitioner of all creatures3 and the Muslims, and as a sign of Mercy to the believers. Thou art Allāh, Creator of beings, Knower of the secrets of the occult, Who makes night follow by day, my argument before all the sages and my goal in all matters. ﴾ We ask You for help ﴿ for every earthly and spiritual need. My God, O King of kings of all the worlds, ﴾ There is no god but You. Glorified art You! Truly I have been one of the unrighteous ﴿ 4. Lord, save me. Lord, obtain me with Thy Mercy, O most Gracious of the merciful. Deliver me from all that I fear and distrust, O Benefactor, enrich me by the right of ﴾ we adore Thee and ask Thee for help. Lead us to the straight path, the way of those whom You have favored, those who are not the object of Your wrath or those who are led astray ﴿.”

And after the second invocation of this ascetic exercise of Fate, you shall recite the Fate, at the end of each prayer eighteen times, and after the supererogatory prayer (witr) twenty-five times. After that, stop fasting and exercise.

But if you persist in the spiritual retreat for seven more days while maintaining complete ascetic practice, and say after the invocation: “My God, make the green carpet (alrafraf alajar) available to me,

1 Cor. xxxvi:57.

2 Cf. Cor. lvii:17, ﴾ To those who give generously and make a beautiful loan to God, it will be multiplied and they will have a generous reward ﴿.

3 Cf. Cor. xxxiv:28.
4 Cor. XXI:86.
5 According to tradition, it is said of Cor. 53:18: “And [the Prophet] saw some of the greatest signs of his Lord,

that what the Prophet saw was a large green carpet (rafraf) stretching across the horizon (Bujārī, no. 2994, 4480; Amado, no. 4063). However, there are different opinions on the meaning of the word rafraf.

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Surely You can do everything”, you burn an incense of aloe wood, incense and benzoin after the recitation during the days of the spiritual retreat and you do not talk to anyone, because you will achieve what you seek and God will put at your service what you ask for, God willing, exalted be He!

[IINVOCATION TO OBTAIN LOVE THROUGH THE FĀTIHA]

This is the way to obtain love with the noble Fatia. Tell:

﴾ In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Praise to God, Lord of the worlds ﴿. Answer, O Jibrīl, you and your servants and helpers, by the right of God, the Mighty, the Almighty, the Bountiful, the Overcomer. I ask you, O Jibrīl, to bring love for “202 b. 202″1 to the heart of “202”, for the right of the Gracious, the Merciful. Oh Generous, O Beautiful. Respond, O Mīkā’īl, attentive and obedient, and bring the love for “212” to the heart of “202”, ﴾ King of the Day of Judgment ﴿, by the right of God, the Living, the Subsistent, the One, the Glorious. Answer, O Isrāfīl, you and your servants and helpers, bring the love of “202” to the heart of “202”, by the right of God, the Living, the Subsistent, by the right of ﴾ we worship You and ask for help ﴿, and by the right of the Sovereign, the Almighty, the Near, the Far, ﴾ lead us to the straight path ﴿. By the right of the Living, the Subsistent, the Eternal. Answer, O Nūriyā’īl, you and your servants and helpers, bring the love for “202” to the heart of “202”, for the right of the way of those whom you have favored, and for the right of the One, the Wise, the Giving, the Bountiful. Answer, O ‘Azrā’īl, you and your helpers, attentive and obedient, and bring love to “202” in the heart of “202”, for the right of those who are not the object of Your wrath and are not the misguided ﴿. Amen. By the right of the Victorious, the Mighty, the Majestic, the Great. Respond, O Kasfiyā’īl, you and your helpers, attentive and obedient, and bring the love for “202” to the heart of “202” – love them as God is loved. But the love for God of those who believe is stronger ﴿2, ﴾ Even if you had spent all that is on earth, you would not have been able to unite their hearts, yet God united them. Verily He is Mighty, Wise﴿ 3″.

And this is the way in which it [the Fate] will be arranged:

Fig. 29

1 He probably uses this number as an abbreviation of “alfulānī”, an expression of which it is its numerical equivalent.

2 Cor. II:164. 3 Cor. VIII:64.

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EMPLEO [DE LA FĀTIHA] FOR ANY DISEASE

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It is said of the Prophet (may Allah bless and save him) that he said: “Whoever has a disease, let him recite the whole [Fate” seventy-one times over the water, and drink of it on an empty stomach, healing him, may God be exalted of what he has, if He wills, with His grace, His goodness and His generosity.” And the Messenger of Allah said, “May Allah bless you and save you,” “The Mother of the Book is the healing of every disease.”1

The Gnostics say that in it there are a thousand manifest virtues and a thousand hidden virtues; and that whoever writes it in a clean vessel, erases it with water, and gives [the filter] to a sick person to drink, his sickness is relieved by the permission of Allah, exalted be He!

And he [the Prophet] said, God bless him and save him: “If you lie down on the bed and recite the Fatia of the Book and the Surah of the Cult, you are safe from anything.” And the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and save him) said: “[Whoever recites] the final part of Surah of Gathering2 and puts a hand on his head and recites a verse, he is cured of all disease except poisoning.” And God, exalted be He, knows better.

APART IN WHICH I WILL MENTION THE “HIGHALISMAN OF THE DEVIL” (HIŶĀB ALQUFL)3 OF GREAT POWER:

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You shall say: “I clothe myself with the Power of the Mighty, the Strong, with the power of His Power, BÆWYL, AYL, ABHYYL, D’YL, ©L, ‘SŶ, T©AR1⁄4F, W1⁄4FAT, BÆMSA, BÆYSYA, ‘LMSYA, HYWŠ, ‘RWŠ, HBŠ, MWKYAHYL, FYA3⁄4, BRHMWDA, YA’T, YABT, YSKALŶ, ADNW, SARŠ, N1⁄4RH, your Lord will help you with noble angels, by ﴾ Alif lām mīm ﴿, ﴾ Alif lām mīm 1⁄2ād ﴿, ﴾ Kāf hā’ yā’ ‘ayn 1⁄2ād ﴿, ﴾ ©ā’ mīm ‘ayn sīn qāf ﴿. ﴾Qāf. By the glorious recitation! ﴿4, ﴾ Nūn. By the calamus and what they write! ﴿5, ﴾ By the sky and the one who comes by night. How do you see what it is that comes by night? It is the dazzling star. That every soul has a protector ﴿6, ﴾ For those who are in the ranks and push in one direction and read a Remembrance! ﴿7, ﴾ By the star when it sets! ﴿8, by Surah of the Moon 9 to the end and Surah ﴾ Say: I have been inspired to the extent that He tells great lies ﴿10, ﴾ which, if you know, is a great oath ﴿11. I protect my body, my hair, and my senses from the wickedness of jinn, men, spirits, and lesser beings, BÆRŠ, ÆRŠ, by the Light and the Supreme Name of God, and by the impregnable veil (¬iŷāb) against the rebellious jinn, demons, and the hosts of Iblīs together, Y’LÆF, HLÆF, SLMÆY’, ASMAÆWN, AÆ’YN, BM’KŠ, BRQŠ, QFAYL, HWRB, MRYWQD, QATŠ,

1 I can’t find either of the two sayings in the collections we handle.

2 Cor. The beginning of the ¬adī£ is missing, and normally the Prophet gave value to the last three verses of the surah for this type of prayer (see al-Tirmī2ī, no. 2846; al-Dārimī, no. 3289, 3291).

3 The ijāb designates a talisman or written incantation that is carried with one for protection. 4 Cor. L:1.
5 Cor. LXVIII:1.
6 Cor. LXXXVI:14.

7 Cor. xxxvii:13. 8 Cor. LIII:1.
9 Cor. liv.
10 Cor. LXXII:14. 11 Cor. LVI:79.

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MANŠ, MMDWHYS, KRHYŠ, KRHYWŠ, ‘LŠAQŠ, AQŠAMQYS. Come down, O spiritual beings […]!, and you, O 1⁄4arafiy×’÷l!, and you, O 1⁄4adaqiy×’÷l! Protect me from such and such a thing concerning spirits, fear and fright, from the misfortunes of night and day, from the evil of every devil and demon, and from the wickedness of every rebellious tyrant. By the right of ÆLYJ, AÆWARYJ, ÆMALYA, ﴾ Kāf hā’ yā’ ‘ayn 1⁄2ād ﴿ is enough for me, ﴾ ©ā’ mīm ‘ayn sīn qāf ﴿ protects me. By the right of FQŶ, MJMT, ﴾ His word is the Truth. To Him belongs Sovereignty on the day when the horn is blown. He knows the unknown and the apparent. He is the Wise, the Shrewd ﴿1. By the Truth of Ahyā, Šarahyā, Adūnāy, A1⁄2bā’ut, Āl, Šadāy, Aylūhīm, ﴾ which, if you know it, is a great oath ﴿, ﴾ God is sufficient for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿2. Fulfill, O servants of these Names, and obey in such and such a matter.”

THEPAGE (sahīfa) OF THE ANGELS, PEACE BE UPON THEM!

It is for protection, for its bearer will be in the custody of God, exalted be He, and it is a magnificent acceptance for those who go to see sovereigns, rulers, and notables with it. Behind it is the sixfold seal, the seal of the noble Fate, which he who carries it with him has divine help and support, thus defeating all who are hostile to him. And it is beneficial for all things. These are the Names:

“Huwa, Huwa, yah, Huwa, Huwa, rah K H Y ‘ 1⁄4, Living, Survivor, Who gives life, Who gives death, Who contains all, Eternal, Unchanging, Dominating, Creator of the heavens and earth, Creator, Elevated, Invincible, Hearer, You are the One who ﴾ There is no god but You. Glorified art thou! Verily I have been of the unrighteous ﴿ 3, ﴾ When He wills something, His Order is to say, Be, and it is. Glory be to Him in Whose Hands is the dominion of all things, and to Whom ye shall return ﴿4, “Gods the Creator of all things and the Protector of all things﴿5 ﴾ 1⁄4ad﴿ ﴾ Qāf﴿ ﴾ Nūn﴿ ﴾ God is enough for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿. ﴾ And he does not tire of maintaining them. He is the Most High, the Sublime ﴿.6 ﴾ You will not harm him at all. It is true that my Lord is the Protector of all things ﴿7. ﴾ God is the best Protector. He is the most Merciful of the merciful ﴿8. ﴾ This is a sublime Recitation on a Protected Tablet ﴿9. MYÆÆRWN, M©YÆQLYAL, 1⁄4’T, K©YAL, 1⁄4’YK’YMHYAL”.

This concludes the chapter of the noble and blessed Fatia, and God is wiser! And this is the way in which the noble and blessed square will be arranged. Try to understand and you will prosper, God willing, praised and exalted, for God speaks the Truth and shows the way.

1 Cor. VI:74.
2 Cor. II:136.
3 Cor. XXI:86.
4 Cor. xxxvi:812. 5 Cor. xxxix:59.
6 Cor. II:255.
7 Cor. XI:56.
8 Cor. XII:64.
9 Cor. LXXXV:212.

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Fig. 30

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CHAPTER ELEVENTH:
ON THE MERCIFUL CREATIONS AND THE BRIGHT AND RADIANT LIGHTS THAT TAKE PLACE IN THE ILLUMINATIONS OF THE WORLD.

God help us and guide us! Verily, God wrote a Book in His pre-eternity (azāliya) and with the hand of His pre-existence, seventy thousand years before He created the spirits, according to the measure of those years in which each day lasted fifty thousand years, multiplied then by seventy thousand years, which are the secret of the verses of God, Exalted be He!, in His Book. And he wrote in it what no one knows but Him, except that of which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and save him, informed us, when he said: “Verily Allah, may His power be glorified, wrote a book seventy thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, and stands beside him on His Throne, and on it he writes: My mercy surpasses My wrath.”1 And this is the truth that was interpreted by the first ones endowed with knowledge, whom God loved and guided in the right way, for this is the truth in which they were immersed, and so they immersed themselves in the seas of divine favors (alālā’), their belief in the Divine Oneness increased, and their ideas found words. They are the heirs whom Allah, exalted be He, referred to in His words: ﴾ They are the ones who will inherit Paradise, where they will be immortal ﴿2. Those who ascend through the realities of the highest ranks in successive ages, without tiring of observing their Protector and of witnessing the abode of absolute Mercy, to the extent of the reality which the letters composing itcan embrace, and by some allusions (išāra)4 which are perceived by one whose understanding is subtle and his knowledge is acute.

And know that the Creator, may His might be glorified, when He brings forth the Upper Pavilion (surādiq), sits it on the footstool of the most splendid Carpet (alrafraf),5 clothe it with the mantle of the lights of Splendor, crowns it with the diadem of supreme Wisdom, and makes it visible in the realities (¬aqā’iq).6 of the pure who are on the level of God’s Liking, from the day they are freed from what is known as “blindness.” And it represents the preeternity desired [by them].

Then God proclaims the realities chosen and the wisdoms chosen by him, and these pierce your essences, the reflection of your retreats in solitude, the throne of your seats, the firmness of your feet on the carpet of your spiritual breadth, the zones of your godfathers in the Presence of supreme holiness, and the difficulties of your intermediate stages of enormous breadth [until the Arrival] and which give you access to the sea of Pleasure, for the steps of salvation begin from the lower celestial entities, passing through the entities of the invisible realm to the

1 V. Bujārī, no. 6872, 6899, 6999; Ibn Mājāa, no. 185, etc. In some versions it is said that the writing is under the Throne and not above, or that it was written at the conclusion of creation and not before. And with this it seems clear that the Preserved Table is alluded to.

2 Cor. xxiii:11.
3 That is, the very letters that express the reality of Mercy.
4 According to some mystics, the ‘allusion’ (išāra) represents that thing that exists by itself but does not exist.

it can be encompassed in words (cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, i, p. 360).
5 See above, p. 157, n. 5.
6 By “realities” he means those concepts of which the Gnostics are absolutely certain and which

constitute his Knowledge.

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reach the top of the upper levels. Then the purest cling to His company [of such proclaimed realities], adopt them as sincere conduct, and respond to His Proclamation [by saying]: “O our Lord, we possess no secret with which to guide us to the Secret of Secret1, nor a subtlety with which we can witness the realities of reflection of Secret2, because what [both] clarify for us is a firmament that surrounds us and an extensive form.” And when this modest courtesy and this partial radical truth are distinguished in them, God, exalted be He, opens for them that Book whose glory we have just mentioned, makes them witnesses of the secret of the circle of Mercy, and impresses its secret on their consciences. Then, through their secret, they acquire the knowledge of the secrets that are hidden in their consciousness, and in them they find a resplendent circle that spreads like an all-encompassing mantle and is filled with a noble harmony, the breath of which can give life to the dead [whose bones are already] eaten away.

And in this they find a circle that has a visible part and a hidden part. Its visible part is a circle that sits on letters that number 567. Its hidden part is a circle containing letters that count 231. The relation of 130 is the pre-eternal relation, which is the hidden one; and the relation of 231 is the post-eternal relation, which is the writing hidden in it. And when an instructive science, a sobering secret, a divine emanation, and a sacred spirit appear before them by their teaching, then they do not cease to pursue their effects, for in them the brightest Truth is clearly shown to them. And [in that science] they find the aptitude necessary to attain Concord, as well as Conjunction for the object of Concord, so that they adopt it as a maxim (imām) for a definite spiritual abode and as a provision (zād) for the [future] Abode of Peace.

If you want to attain that, verify the secret that resides in the second number, and at that moment the primordial science and the anticipated visible secret will appear before you. And that is that the upper Pavilion on the level of the shining footstool is concealed under the praise and full splendor by the secret of the object of desire in the object of desire itself. And this is the object of the vision of Unification in the units, in terms of degrees, not in terms of numerical computation.

You must understand that, for people are divided into three kinds of perceptions and revealed realities: he who witnesses the first Book when it is closed, witnesses the curtains of the highest Pavilion. Whoever witnesses what is written on it, witnesses the footstool on which the Pavilion sits. And he who witnesses the mystery of the Book, witnesses the most resplendent Pavilion, and beyond it there is no degree to which one can ascend, except that which contains the secret of the Circle of Mercy.

I will give you an example with which you can approach understanding: Suppose an extended circle of balanced proportion that rises in the air without anything to support it. Its visible part is above what is above and its hidden part is below what is below. Its beginning is the beginning of the

1 The secret of the secret is the short aspect of the reality of gnosis (NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, v, p. 140).

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2 That is, the very object of reflection or what lies beyond it.

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beginning and its end is the end of the end. Your right side is your preeternity and your left side is your posteternity.

And as for the circle, which is the circle of alif jīm dāl, its visible part is dāl alif, and its hidden part is the hidden part of the alif, for in the secret of the alif not the visible alif, there is the relation of what is above and what is above, since there is nothing above that can be conceived, its upper part is the alif traced at the top of the circle, and its lower part is at the fall [of the circle]. His right side is his jķīm, and his left side is his dāl. This, and the truth of the Truth, is the reality of the divine Oneness without resemblance, simile or comparison, without concrete or general definition, without above and without below, without right and without left, without behind and without front. Try to understand and you will be guided, for the time of the appearance of the Truth is approaching, and of beholding the Truth on the Path.

And as for the Merciful secret, for it is the secret of the Intermediate World (albarzach) that c exists between the two alif that participate in the occult and the apparent of the circle. And you are the one who gathers in the circle and who witnesses the Truth and the secret of Mercy. So witness the Pavilion and confirm the truth of the negation, for if you succeed in separating the precious stone set in this
ring, you enter the peace of the Garden of Gnostic knowledge. Concentrate the reflective dispersion in the
light of Mercy and lean on it without continually seeking it, for when you find your support in it, you tend to it and make the individuality of the intimate consciousness go towards it, spreading the divine Merciful emanation. Then you will understand the definition (add) of what precedes with what is behind, and what is hidden in what is manifest, so that the realities
of things will bear good news for you or warnings. And [the light of Mercy] will reach the most loser by their works. Those whose zeal for the life of the world
led them astray while thinking ﴿ of the world of the Carpet (rafraf) ﴾ that they were doing good ﴿1 for the world of the Pavilion. The Most High has already anticipated them with His words, exalted be He: ﴾ These will be the ones
who denied ﴿ in the world of the curtain, ﴾ the signs of His Lord ﴿ in the world of the footstool, ﴾ and the meeting with Him ﴿ in the world of the Pavilion, ﴾ their works became useless ﴿ on the Day of Loss,
﴾ and We will not grant them ﴿ in the Intermediate World ﴾ any weight ﴿ on the Day of Resurrection: ﴾ that
will be their reward: Hell ﴿ in the world of the curtain, ﴾ because they did not believe ﴿ in the world of the footstool, ﴾ and took My signs ﴿ in the world of the Carpet, ﴾ and My envoys ﴿ in the world of the Splendorous Pavilion, ﴾ to mockery ﴿2. And if they would enter the circle of Mercy, they would find mercy in the secrets of the heavenly Kingdom.

The warning of that is found in His words, praise and praise be to Him!, ﴾ There is no god but Allah ﴿, which are two circles: the circle of denial and the circle of confirmation. So, is the circle of negation one of the circles of affirmation, or is it one of the circles of negation of one who witnesses Oneness, and the circle of affirmation corresponds to the Cause? For there are two halves, half of the negation resides in the intellectual concepts and half of the affirmation in the

1 Cor. XVIII:99.
2 Cor. XVIII: 100101.

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physical concepts. And since the half of the negation contains five letters1, there are five negated concepts: the denial of the free will of wills, the denial of your existence by your own capacity, the denial of your subsistence by your own acts, the denial of your control of the Names, and the denial of your perpetuity in the different states. And these are the five dependencies of the soul. He who overcomes these dependencies, rises towards the circle of affirmation by having seven levels, according to the number of his letters, and they are: his life in Oneness, his science in contemplative Vision (šuhūd), his capacity in Pleasure, his control in Wisdom (al¬ikma), his gaze in Intuition (al ba1⁄2īra), his testimony (šuhūd) in Truth, and his hearing in Unveiling (kašf). With his life in Oneness he perceives the reality of Perpetuity (albaqā’). With his knowledge in the contemplative Vision he witnesses the lights of Perpetuity. With its capacity for Pleasure, its soul is limited to longing for what has gone before. With his words in Wisdom he acquires the inspiration [that keeps him] from error. With his gaze on Intuition he discovers the truths of the Final Return (almāl). And with his ear in the Mystery, the vision of the world of Truth becomes inevitable for him. At that moment he recites the words of Allah, may He be exalted, with the seven letters with which the Qur’an descended, and this is the reality of the statement. He who does not have a negation, does not have an affirmation, and he who knows, knows, pleases, speaks with Wisdom, looks with Perception and listens to the Secret, that is truly the virtuous man.

And since ﴾ Lā ilāh illa Allāh ﴿ are twelve letters, and these twelve letters are the strength (¬i1⁄2n) of God, as He made known to us in His words: “﴾ Lā ilāh illa Allāh ﴿ is My strength”2, with firmness in His attribution; and since there is a circle of perfection in existing beings that resides in plants, minerals and animals, and which is inserted in the perfection of the four seasons, and the four seasons contain twelve months, the whole world being under the containment of the circle of the year, for the forms are completed as to their description. And there is no division in them as to the original arrangement of this divine course, in which the realities of the verdicts of time in its months, then in its days, and then in its hours cannot be avoided. The twelve letters correspond to the twelve months, each month finding its basis in one of the letters. Moreover, the appearance of each letter takes place in each month, and the months are the adverbs of time of the letters with which Mercy descends, the Totality is manifested, Wisdom emanates, the Guidance takes place, the increase comes, the blessings are magnified, prosperity increases, abundance increases, and the advantages are multiplied.

So much for the general, and for for God, exalted be He, created from the secret of His favor and the subtlety of His Wisdom the disposition of the year, which is deposited on the isolated day with an order of twelve hours, whence a month is an hour in which is the secret of the month. And he put the secrets of spring in the first three hours, the secret of summer in the second three hours, then the secret of autumn in the third three hours, and then the secret of winter in the fourth three hours. Each hour is sustained by the secret of one of those temporary letters erected for the glory of Oneness.

1 Lā ilah.
2 I do not know if this is a prophetic tradition, for such a phrase is not found in the Qur’an.

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And since the day is twelve hours and in it the sentence (al-ukm) is completed, for if it were perpetuated on the day of men, well-being would designate suffering, when subsistence is only relevant in the Subsistent. And the world of humans is composed of movement and stillness, the propagation of both and the discovery of their phases being inevitable, so God created the night, which is the presence of
His curtain and His return to the world of His Truth through the secret of transmigration, resurrection, ascent of spirits and elevation of intellects. And the immobility of the human race takes place under the blackness of darkness. Then he put twelve hours in the night, which are the circle ﴾ Mu¬ammad RasūluLlāh ﴿ with twelve letters, each letter having an hour. And since ﴾ Lā ilāh illa
Allāh ﴿ only completes Oneness with ﴾ Mu¬ammad RasūluLlāh ﴿, in the same way the circle of day is only completed with the circle of night, and in this way Wisdom in night and day is completed with the combination of Mercy, because of His saying, exalted be He!:
﴾ As part of His Mercy He gave you night and day so that in it you might rest and in Him seek
His favor. Perhaps you will be thankful ﴿1, the meaning of which is that whoever says ﴾ Lā ilāh illa Allāh ﴿ y
﴾ Mu¬ammad RasūluLlāh ﴿, on the condition of what we mentioned above and the fulfillment of what we emphasized, it will be as if he worships God, exalted be He, with the worship of a
full year. That is why he [the Prophet] said, peace and blessings be upon him!”, that the best remembrance (2ikr)
of the prophets is in his words: “The best thing that I and the prophets before me have said is: Lā ilāh illa Allāh” 2.

And you should know that in correspondence to the twenty-four letters there are twenty-four worlds: nine intermediate worlds (barzajiyāt) above and below and eleven orbits and spheres (fuluk wadawā’ir), each world having an originality (ibdā’), and four higher worlds which are the realities of the principles of the world of Creation. And there are twenty-four worlds in all, each world being the reality of one of these luminous letters, and in the succession of each of the letters the manifestation of each of these worlds takes place. And since the reality of the upper and lower world is a relation in the essence of the Throne, the secret of its solidity in it lies in the two lines written with the two lights, i.e., the white light and the green light, and they are ﴾ Lā ilāh illa Allāh ﴿ and ﴾ Mu¬ammad RasūluLlāh ﴿ These two luminous lines are under the Throne and this is the truth of this spiritual subtlety.

b

And since from the eight [angels] who bear the Throne, peace be upon them!, emanate the spirits c of the heavenly Kingdom, the lights of the World of the Imperative, and the lights of the world of Sovereignty, the whole world is lights, and the Light of lights is the Throne, and He Who gives light to the Light is God, Exalted be He!:
﴾God is the light of the heavens and the earth ﴿3. Each angel has the light of three letters, coming out of the light of each
letter which harmonizes with the horizon of each world of the heavenly Kingdom, of Omnipotence and of Sovereignty. The light of the heavenly Kingdom extends the intellects, the light of Omnipotence extends the spirits, and the light of Sovereignty extends the heart, and in this way the twenty-four [lights] of the eight angels are completed by multiplying three by eight. You must understand this, for that is why whoever says
﴾ Lā ilāh illa Allāh ﴿ ﴾ Mu¬ammad RasūluLlāh ﴿, is moved by the acceptance of the Throne, and that is that the good word (alkalima alÐayyiba) ascends with its essence, because it has a relationship in Sovereignty,

1 Cor. xxviii:73.
2 Cf. Mālik, no. 449, 841. 3 Cor. xxiv:35.

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an ascent into Omnipotence and a path of ascent into the Celestial Realm, and does not depend on or follow any of the realities of the worlds emanating from it. God said, Exalted be He: ﴾ The good word ascends to Him ﴿1.

That is why God provides the means of subsistence to those who recite it a thousand times in a state of purity in the morning of each day. Whoever recites it the number of times mentioned when he falls asleep, his spirit spends the night under the Throne, returning in the morning from that world, to the extent of his strength. Whoever recites it in the presence of the sun thus weakens the demon within. Whoever recites it when he sees the crescent moon is safe from diseases. Whoever recites it when entering a city is safe from its tumult (fitna). Whoever recites it with all his reflection and sends it to an evil or unjust person, represses it. He who recites it in order to scrutinize the realities of the higher worlds, reveals to himself the hidden of that to which he aspires. And all this is given with the conditions that we have already mentioned and the validity of what we have stipulated regarding the understanding of the secrets of the letters and the order of the worlds, because in each world there are the names of the deeds and intentions, as the Prophet said, peace and blessings be upon him! “Acts depend on intentions, and each person will be rewarded according to what was proposed.”

And since the esplanades [of the Day of Resurrection] are twelve3, for to each position corresponds a letter on which the one who is on that esplanade leans, so that he will ascend by that letter, which is the place of his appearance on the day of the supreme Meeting, that is, the day of the intermediate place of the congregation [of souls]. This is a subtlety that reveals the secret and opens the locks of thought, and that is that the luminous circle (šamsa) of Mercy, designated as the Light of lights and the pole of the Abode (quÐb aldār), revolves around unintelligible essences, incomprehensible attributes, preceding divergences, and unmistakable visible aspects. It executes a changing rotation and makes a state of Sovereignty predominate, it exchanges the earth for another earth as length is replaced by breadth, and it imposes the transformation of the heavens and their concealment as the concealment of the scroll of the Merciful Book4, the dazzling Light and the visible Scales. He then plunges the spirits into his furious, wave-tossed sea, and the spirits sink into those seas until [the circle] turns on its side of darkness, with a focus of fire burning toward the great tree and the bountiful fruit. And no one will find the way or run after it except the fragrant spirit on the right track, or the proud diver, or the distant eager to get closer, or the most desirable cigar. This is the place of the radiance of the tree of variety and the disappearance of the trace of difference. Try to understand this superior subtlety, this dazzle of Wisdom and this divine gift, for it is found in the secret of His words, exalted be He: Say: I exhort you only one thing: Propose it to yourselves for God’s sake two by two or separately, and reflect: your companion is not possessed.5 Duality

1 Cor. xxxv:10.
2 It alludes to the notion that in each individual resides an inferior or evil ego that identifies with the devil. 3 In connection with the prophetic tradition according to which on the Day of Resurrection souls will be gathered into twelve

groups, (cf. ABŪL©ASAN ALA Š’ARĪ, Kitāb Šaŷarat alYaqīn, ed. and trans. Concepción Castillo Castillo, Madrid: Instituto HispanoÁrabe de Cultura, 1987, p. 67).

4 Refers to the Preserved Table. 5 Cor. xxxiv:46.

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(isti£nā’) reflexive resides in the conjunction. ﴾ And reflect ﴿ on the secret of Oneness and the secret of duality, since the secret of Oneness is the course of emanation of divine designs, and the secret of duality is the course of emanation of human designs, and the contemplation of Oneness only occurs after the distinction of duality through the reality of reflection, and reflection is found in the secret of the even, not in the secret of the singular, for the singular is pre-eternal and the even is post-eternal, so that he who contemplates the secret of the singular in the secret of the even, has known the easy passage of great happiness and torment in the degrees that propitiate great fatigue1.

You should know that the length of the Day is fifty thousand years in the first degree, a thousand years in the second degree, and it has also been weighted in the third degree as estimated by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and save him), with his saying: “It is like the two rak’at of the Fajr prayer.” So to whom the secret of Oneness is opened without duality, his Day is the fifty thousand years; who is a partaker of the duality added to Oneness, his Day is like a thousand years; and to the one who unifies the concept of the two worlds, his day is like the two rak’at of the dawn prayer, he will settle on the summits of the Acts and recite the line of rejoicing and the letters of joy, which are: ﴾ Praise be to God, Who has removed sorrow from us! True, our Lord is forgiving, thankful ﴿ 2.

And you must know that the matter of the world with its superior and inferior secrets, its most insignificant and remote things, even every particle that has been deposited in it, is part of the life deposited in the pattern (unmūdaŷ) of water, for in it resides the secret of creation (alja’l), which is the principle of water. And as for the end of water, for in it lies the secret of life, water being an intermediate step between the two realms. In the secret of creation is the Celestial Kingdom and the world of the Imperative, and in every visible aspect of the secret of life and in its hidden part is the secret of creation. The “Of Life” (al-ayā) partakes of the secret of heat (al-arāra); the jīm of Creation (alja’l) resides in the secret of Majesty (aljaalāla), and the secret of servitude (altasjīr) takes place in it. And with the “of Life” (al-ayā) the secret of Permanence (al baqā’) becomes indispensable to it. The jīm of Majesty merges between the perceptions of the hearts and the outpourings belonging to the Celestial Kingdom. And by means of heat the background of the light of Life is drawn into the essence of the Intellect (al’aql) and splits into the form of resplendent light. From the obligatory nature of existence comes the warmth and the jim of Majesty (alŷalāla), since she is the secret of the Lordship (alrubūbiyya). And from the nature of the Lordship comes its divinity and intimate union, the Supreme Truth being made evident by intimacy in the manifestation of the jīm and with the vision of the means [to reach it]. Oneness is the basis of Wisdom according to His saying, exalted be He: Say: What would it seem to you if Allah perpetuated the night for you until the Day of Resurrection ? If the jīm of Creation (alja’l) were ruled by the darkness of contraction, there would be no control through Wisdom. And in the same way if the “Life” (al-ayā) were governed by the presence of expansion, Oneness would be hidden, and therefore are His words, Exalted be He: Say: What would you think of it?

1 Cf. Cor. XCII:510. 2 Cor. xxxv:34.
3 Cor. XXVIII:71.

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if God were to perpetuate the night for you until the Day of Resurrection ﴿1 until the end of the verse. Then Allah imposed upon them a balance of balance, a descent of Mercy, and a favor in the manifestation of Wisdom through the determination [of His name] and the manifestation of Oneness through Invention (Allah), and therefore Allah said, Exalted be He: ﴾ As part of His Mercy He gave you night and day to rest in it and in it seek His favor ﴿. This is a subtlety of Perpetuity.

And you must know that the Pavilions from which the theophanic lights hang are hidden above the lights of the Intellect. The Pavilions of Mercy are a manifestation in the secrets of leveled inventions. And the upper vaults are concealed by subtle thought (alfikra). So the hidden part of the brightest Kingdom (azhar) comes from the light of the components of the most dazzling Kingdom (abhar). If you want to understand that, you have to understand this subtle allusion: ﴾ Take four birds ﴿: the Secret Name (maknūn), the Preserved Name (majzūn), the Veiled Name (ma¬ŷūb), and the Supreme Name, ﴾ cut them into pieces ﴿. Make them partake of the secret of intimate union and set them free in the presence of holiness, and when you possess the necklaces (maqālid) of their essences and witness the proofs of their secret, ﴾ put a piece on each mountain ﴿: on the mountain of the Work (aldarr) the part of the Supreme bird, on the mountain of the Imperative the part of the veiled bird, on the mountain of the Celestial Kingdom the part of the preserved bird, and on the mountain of the carpet (alrafraf) the part of the secret bird more resplendent. ﴾ Then call them ﴿ with the secrecy of what you order them ﴾ and they will come to you in haste ﴿2.

That will be given to whoever verifies the Name of Strengthening and the Name of Wisdom, and if you understand this inspiring breath and this illuminating revelation, then ﴾ take four birds and cut them into pieces ﴿: the first is the bird of Life, the second is the bird of Knowledge (al’ilm), the third is the bird of Ability and the fourth is the bird of Will. It verifies life in the believing Life by sensitive annihilation, science with the knowledge that leads to God, praised, exalted, and exalted, ability with the secret of invention (alijtirā’), and will with the secret of consideration of the original creation (alibdā’). Then place on the mountain of the Work the secret of life, on the mountain of Reflection in original creation the secret of science, on the mountain of Composition the secret of capacity, and on the mountain of Order the secret of will. ﴾ Then call them and they will come to you in a hurry ﴿. This becomes manifest in the one who approaches Allah, may He be exalted, with His totality until He is characterized by His words, exalted be He, “I am His ear, His sight, and the tongue” in the noble Adīt.

And you should know that the fire complained to its Lord and said, “O lord, some parts of me have consumed others,” so it was allowed to take one exhalation (nafs) in the winter and another exhalation in the summer3. Both are exhalations that are the product of a single Essence, and truly the separation of the exhalation into two is possible through the existence of density (alka£āfa), and still more by the arcanum of noble subtlety, the lofty goodness of division, and the pure invention of imposition.

1 Cor. XXVIII:71.
2 Cor. II:259.
3 Cf. Bujārī, no. 504, 3020; Muslim, not 977, 979, etc.

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Understand this by His saying, Exalted be He: ﴾ There is no one among you who will not come to Him ﴿ 1, alluding to the Day of Judgment. And as for the Arrival (alwurūd) on the Day of the Hereafter, the abode of their truth is ﴾ and then call upon them and they will come to you in haste ﴿. And if you perceive extinction within Perpetuity, and contemplation in the Encounter ﴾ take four birds and cut them into pieces ﴿, the bird of prophecy, the bird of truthfulness, the bird of martyrdom and the bird of righteousness, tear them to pieces before you and verify their being in their contemplation, ﴾ put a piece on each mountain ﴿, on the mountain of the Intellect the bird of prophecy, on the mountain of the Spirit the bird of truthfulness, on the mountain of the Heart the bird of martyrdom, and on the mountain of the Body the bird of righteousness, ﴾ Then call upon them, and they will come to you with haste. And if you consolidate yourself in that dwelling, you contemplate these concepts in them. ﴾ Take four birds and cut them into pieces ﴿, take the bird of Intellect, and it is the secret of Life, and the bird of Life, which is the secret of divine Knowledge, the bird of the Heart, which is the secret of Will, and the bird of Secret, which is the secret of Ability. Put a piece on each mountain, place on the mountain of Intellect the bird of the Heart, on the mountain of intermediate life the bird of the Spirit, on the mountain of the Hereafter the bird of the Secret, and on the mountain of eternal life (mujlida) the bird of the Heart. ﴾ Then call them and they will come to you in a hurry ﴿.

And you must know that he who covers himself with the mantle of Affinity with God (aljulla) does not have the contemplation of Subordination, for Affinity is the divine Intellect and the mantle is the spiritual essence (alrū¬ alrū¬ānī), since Power interrupts Affinity and Wisdom is the spirit of Affinity. And if you want to know how the relationship of what we have mentioned is, check the equivalence of what we have explained and classified, and listen to what one of the knowers of the Realities (a¬l al¬aqā’iq) said, God have mercy on them: “I embarked on a ship whose number of tablets (alwā¬) gathered together that made up its base was one hundred and thirty-one boards, for this is a condition [to be] in the boat of salvation. I remained at sea sailing with the wind of safety (al salāma), the anchorage was five hundred and twelve days during the four seasons, except that each of the days of the four seasons derives from the days of God. Then I reached the coast of the sea and found among the precious stones, the shining sapphires, the sublime treasures, the red sulphur, the colorful metals and the essence of life, a ship to sail for eternity. I washed myself with its water and took a sip of it after which there was no extinction (fanā’). Then I drove my ship and returned to my country, setting sail from the place of sunrise to the place of sunset, for there is the blessed coast.” This is sincere advice, evident to the naked eye and understandable at all times and times. God speaks the truth and He leads in the right way. We ask God, exalted be He, His favor. Verily He is the Knower of all things.

You should know, may Allah guide us, that there are four movements (arakāt): the waking movement (kašf), which is the first. Concealment movement (sitr), which is the second. Movement of wakefulness of sleeplessness, which is the third. And the movement of concealment [of the occult], which is the fourth. The first movement of wakefulness is the movement of the spreading of molecules (araka al2arr), it is the movement of the Essence and it is the movement of the Intellect. The movement of the first concealment is

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the movement of the Soul (alnafs), and it is a movement […]. The movement of the second wakefulness is the movement of the spiritual heart, and it is a movement relative to the Will. And the movement of the second concealment is the movement of essences, and it is a movement relative to desire. The movement of the first sleeplessness corresponds to the first day, which is the day on which God created the spirits in the world of the Covenant (al’ahd). The second day corresponds to the first concealment, [day] of the speech of the Intellect in the world of Dust. These are the beginnings of the primordial entities (alawaliyyāt). The third day corresponds to the second unveiling, which is the day of the imposition of the Covenant (almī£āq) on molecules. And the fourth day is the day of the second concealment, the day of the coming of the observance of the divine commandments, which is the day of the fulfillment of the time, except that its final part is the day of the first wakefulness. The first veiling is the Throne of the Beginning, and the first occultation is the first footstool. Then the second waking is the Throne of endless posteternity, and the second concealment is the footstool of the fulfillment of the term. All these stages and phases are the reality of Mercy and the truth of Mercy. The reality of Mercy is the secret of the mixture (almazŷa), which combines the subtle and the dense essences by a knowable process. The secret of Lordship appears in the secret of mixture, that is, the breath [of the Horn] attached to the manifest presence of Lordship, in whose relation are the subtle essences which are made to operate by means of the dense essences. This [combination] is the secret of the veils (al-ujŷub), i.e., this formation (alnaš’a) from which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and save you!, informed us when he said of His Lord, the Mighty and Exalted: “God has seventy veils of light and darkness which, if He were to draw them away, His glorious Majesty would consume His creation as far as His gaze reaches.”1. The second thing is the veils in relation to you, not in relation to Him, for they form a two-sided barrier, and that [in relation to Him] conceals only one body, while the Truth, praise and exaltation be to Him, is not found in any body.2

And you must know that what is veiled is invariably veiled from one point of view, and Allah, praise and exalted be He, has no point of view. So the concealment of darkness is the concealment of the post-eternal entities from the lights of the primeval entities. And the concealment of the light is that of the primeval entities with respect to the beginnings of the Essence and the primeval entities of Mercy, that is, their reality in relation to the dense entities through the propagation of the subtle entities, otherwise they would disappear. And you should know that subtle entities are carriers of dense entities, so the components of subtle entities are more sublime than the components of dense entities. Here is a warning of it with a beautiful subtlety and an excellent perfume of the secrets of numbers and the linking of the letters3.

Thou shalt know, O God guide us, that the secrets of God, exalted be He, and His knowable conceptions of the subtle and dense entities of the higher and lower worlds, and the entities of the Kingdom and those of Sovereignty, [all of them] are in two relations: numbers and letters. The secrets of letters are in numbers, and the theophanies of numbers are in letters. The upper numbers correspond to spiritual entities, and the letters belong to the realms of physical entities and

1 Cf. Muslim, no. 263; Ibn Maja, no. 191, 192; Amad, not 18765 and 18806, where there is no mention of the seventy veils, and the Prophet simply says: “Her veil is light, and if I should draw it back…”

2 Translation uncertain. 3 Uncertain translation.

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entities of the Celestial Kingdom. Numbers are the secret of words and letters are the secret of acts. So the world of the Throne is numbers and the world of the footstool are letters, and the relation of letters belongs to numbers, since the relation of the footstool belongs to the Throne. And with the secret of numbers you will understand absolute Capacity, and that is that the One, praised and exalted, praised and exalted! He praised Himself through the secret of numbers, and said: ﴾ We are enough to count ﴿1. And He arranged His Praise in letters for your benefit, as He said: ﴾ Read in the name of Your Lord as far as He Who taught by means of the calamus says. ﴿2. And the bodies that are in the connection of letters is that which is not taught in the realm of numbers. And since the immense footstool (alwāsi’) is in conjunction with the essence of the Throne, and the second Throne is in conjunction with the essence of the all-encompassing footstool, for the parts of one of them are the first and the last, so that the form of the letters proceeds from the numbers. In the same way, the last degree of letters is the first degree of numbers, and the last degree of numbers is the first degree of letters. So with the secret of numbers is meant the secret of the Divine Intellect, and with the secret of letters is meant the secret of the spiritual Essence. And since in this way the last degree of the Intellect is the first degree of the Higher Soul, which is the first Emanation, in the same way the letters are taken from the edge (arf) of the object, which is its end, the number being its first and central part, since every principle of it has a central part. Thus by the secret of letters one understands the secret of the upper footstool and the immense and brighter footstool, and that is that the essences of the higher and lower celestial entities are different. The Footstool is in the highest position and the difference between its variation and its phases lies in the immense Footstool. And the form of the means of the Spirit and the propagation of the Intellect resides in the surface that makes up the Escabel ulterior (alanhà). The immense footstool is the first of the starting points of the Throne from the relation of the effluvia (inbi’ā£āt) of the realities of Sovereignty, which are the spheres. And the highest footstool, that is, the first of the effluvia in the realities of the Kingdom and the extension of the last degree of the lower entities into the first degree of the higher entities.

And you must know that the Later Footstool is the first emanation through the first light, the immense Footstool is the emanation with the second light, and the highest Footstool is the emanation of the third light. So the first emanation, that is, the third, is the first, and the third is the beginning of letters and the last degree of numbers, and it is the secret designated as the reality of mankind, about which he said, exalted be He: “I am going to create a human being out of clay.” After that, when the two previous emanations are completed, his allocution becomes necessary, so the allocution of the Name of human reality takes place, and he said, exalted be He!: ﴾When I have given it shape and breathed into it part of my Spirit the verse to the end ﴿5. And the second emanation comes from the parts of the number, for it is the connection of the initial and final aspect of the letters. The third emanation is the starting point of numbers, it is the one that brings together the two seas, it is the way out of the two emanations and the secret of the upper Blowing. Therefore God said, Exalted be He: ﴾ When He has given Him

1 Cor. XXI:47.
2 Cor. xcvi:14.
3 Uncertain translation. 4 Cor. xxxviii:70.
5 Cor. xxxviii:71.

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form and breathe into him part of my Spirit, fall before him prostrate!﴿, that is, the last two emanations and the first emanation. […]1.

And returning to the verification of what we had noticed and alluded to in the subtleties of reflection, Gratification is the breaths, as regards the attributes, not as regards the essences. It comes from the highest word of the Most High which gives an account of the absolute secret of manifest truth, the light that guides to the right path, the authenticity of the highest secret and the most resplendent scales, whose glorious Book and recitation is the Qur’an. The meaning of that is: ﴾ Say: for those who believe, it is a guide and a healing. Those who do not believe, have a deafness in their ears and it is a blindness for them in the intermediate abode, it is as if they were called from a distant place ﴿2. And also: ﴾ Say: for those who believe in the abode in Sovereignty, it is a guide in the intermediate abode and a healing ﴿. And also: ﴾ Those who do not believe, have a deafness in their ears and it is a blindness for them in the intermediate abode. These will be called from the forms that shape punishments, from a distant place ﴿ because of the deafness of their ears. And when all the forms are completed, their essences will succeed each other with the heterogeneity of their classes and the continuous renewal of their punishment, being stripped of the visual virtue that figures the void and erasing in it the fixed forms of punishment. It is the punishment of the third emanation on high, which is the connection of the most resplendent Throne; and it is the punishment of the first degree of the numbers that are linked to the first of the ends of the letters. It is the punishment of the Spirit who is known for length, breadth, and purity. This is the most severe of the punishment, speech will be lost because of separation, vision will be lost because of vision, and purity will be lost because of remoteness, for they are in general levels and fiery lights that give thirst for tranquility because of the intensity of their ardor, and they will be given to drink from the absence of purity.

As for the bottom letters [they are boiling water] that will shatter the bowels of your earthly minds. They will be fed if they are hungry, because of the blindness of the absence of vision, with the tree of Zaqqūm of Wrath, which is Majesty. And if they are naked, they shall be clothed, by the dark desolation of sightlessness, in garments of tar, the [higher] regions being closed by the thirst arising from offense, in the darkness of truth, in connection with incendiary letters and numbers which they transfer, until His most high decree and His trustworthy sentence are represented in the connection of Him who says of them that they shall be deprived of His protection in the three worlds. God will not speak to them and they will have a painful punishment in immortality (aljulūd), that is, immortality in their graves, in the duration of their essences with the different kinds of hardships. Then the veil of human perception will be lifted, and the secrets of the letters of Sovereignty will be revealed before it. And the realities of the numbers of the celestial kingdom are His word about the source of life, that is, the sacred area that characterizes the chosen and exalted prophet, God bless him and save him, is this. He will really descend into the intermediate world and the plan will follow him, the punishment will separate him, the reckoning will constrain him, the prison will distinguish him until the Day of the total Resurrection and he will fulfill this stay, for if anything endures, it is in the greatest of fires, the one that neither kills nor gives life. On what needs to be clarified, we have already been asked

1 We desist from translating the following lines of the text, due to their extremely dark style. 2 Cor. XLI:43.

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carried out the subsequent emanation in detail. We will not address the explanation of the reality of the intermediate step (albarzach) in this section, until its time comes, God willing, exalted be He!

And as for what we mentioned about the secret of the subtle entities underlying the dense entities, then try to understand their secret and you will learn. It is really the secret of certainty that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and save him, made known to us with his words: “Whoever knows himself knows his Lord, and there is nothing nobler, higher and more sublime than your knowledge (ma’rifa) of your Lord.” He who understands this subtlety understands the secret of the subtle soul and its relation to the dense entities. You must understand that from this secret comes the perpetuation of the secret of Conjunction (alitti1⁄2āl) through the knowledge of the ego and the paths of the ascetic exercises that lead to Union. After that, the door will open before you through the divine emanation and the lordly effluvium (rabbānī), which will take you out of the circle of the restriction of structure into the circle of absolute liberation. This cloak (giāā’) will be uncovered, space (alfaÅā’) will be spread out before you, you will climb the Lotus of the Limit, and you will walk proudly in the good life of the Garden of Refuge. None of this divine subtlety and mystical vision becomes apparent except for the desire to please God. With it the treasure of my confidence is transmitted. Its lights (šumūs) will be contemplated from the esplanade [of the Garden] by the sighted man with his own eyes, and the haughtiness of the fallen will disappear in the realm of his thought. I hope that he will be my companion in the highest meeting and that he will sit with me in the following gardens, as commanded by God, exalted be He, in His sacred book: ﴾ Help one another in godliness and the fear of God ﴿1. And the Prophet, God bless him and save him, said: “No man’s faith is complete until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself.”2

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Subtlety: The Intermediate Abode is separated from the realities of Sovereignty, and only the entities of the intermediate world are reflected in it. […]: “Whoever sets a good precedent [in Islam], has a reward for it, and so does he who acts in accordance with it until the Day of Judgment.”3 I have a covenant and a covenant with God that those who are distinguished by righteousness and cover themselves with the mantle of fulfillment, provided they search the pages of this firm precept and this right way, turn their eyes away from immoral words, and observe with the gaze of perfection what was hidden from their perception, for there is no doubt that what appears through the clarity of speech is not verified by the symbol, and this beneficially reverts to our redemption. May they pray to God, exalted be He, wishing me what is right for them at that moment decreed with presence of heart and thought. […]. God help you to His understanding, make His knowledge easier for you, and guide you to His Hiding Place (katm).4

[…]

1 Cor. V:3.
2 Bujārī, no. 12; Muslim, not 64; Ibn Mājaa, 65; etc. 3 Muslim, no 1691; AnNasā’ī, no 2507.
4 We desist from translating the rest of the chapter.

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CHAPTER TWELVE
:ON THE NAME OF THE HEAD OF GODAND THE HIDDEN DERIVATIONS IT HAS

Know that, God guide us, in the science of the Supreme Name reside virtues and physical effects. We will explain it to you so that you may see how many secrets reside in it, as well as the lights that God, exalted be He, has made visible in it, so that those who study it and understand its meanings and wonders may benefit from it, for this Name heals diseases and pains, causes the speedy recovery of health, and is an invulnerable protection.

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[VIRTUDES PECULIARES DEL NOMBRE SUPREMO DE DIOS]

One of its peculiar virtues (jawā1⁄21⁄2) is that whoever writes it and puts it in the tomb of a dead man, [the dead] is safe from the torment of the grave. Whoever carries it with him is under the protection of Allah, exalted be He! It is a magnificent acceptance for those who go before the sovereigns and the most powerful, since they are protected from them as sheep are protected from the wolf. The bearer of this Name has the Divine Support and Help, so that he overcomes all who stand against him. It is beneficial for nullifying the effects of black magic (alsi¬r), for freeing the bound (alma’qūd), and for the person whose imprisonment is prolonged. And it is very beneficial for the epileptic, to make the devil (some) come out of the body, because if he hangs over it and raises his cheek, he burns himself.

He who engraves on a silver seal the Names whose mention follows in the first hour of Friday and fasting, for when he wears the ring everyone who sees it will love him, treat him kindly and solve his need. If he goes with him to the governor (suulan), he obtains from him whatever he proposes. Whoever goes with him to the governor shall carry it in his right hand, and in the same hand with the rest of the authorities; and if he goes into combat with him, the ring will be on his left hand. If you deposit that ring in an abandoned place, it is filled with population. If it is carried by an unmarried woman, it is quickly married, and especially the virgin is asked in marriage. If he wears it who is afraid of highwaymen or anything, then he will be safe from what he fears.

And if this Supreme Name is hung on the banner, those troops and that army will gain victory over their enemies, God willing, exalted be He!

[APARTADO SOBRE EL SQUARE DEL NOMBRE SUPREMO]

One of the kings of the Muslims besieged one of the cities of the infidels for seven years, so that the Muslims built another city around the city, and without being able to defeat that first city. Then one of the king’s associates mentioned that in a certain place there was a man known for his asceticism, his fear of God and his erudition, and that he had become famous for it. [The king] came before him, and having received him with hospitality and generosity, the

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man asking him, “What do you need?” The king told him the reason he brought him and what the Muslims had obtained in the siege of that city. Then the king said: “What we want from you is that you support us with the blessed invocations.”

[That man recounted]: When I heard the king’s words and the reason he brought him, I was forced to solve his problem. Then I took a piece of paper on which I had heard that the noble Name was separated and harmoniously folded [in a square]. I handed it to him and said to him: put him in the vanguard of your troops and advance with the Muslims towards the city, for truly God, exalted be He, will give you victory over your enemies. The king took it and returned to his troops. The next morning the king ordered the Muslims to march against the city, and having placed the noble square on the standard at the front of the army as I ordered, he marched against the infidels. And by God, it was only a brief moment before God granted victory to the Muslims and brought about the defeat of the infidels, taking [the former] the city and obtaining a magnificent booty. [The king] sent me some of the booty, but I accepted nothing from it, and said to them, “Distribute it to the poor and needy,” after I had commanded them to preserve the noble square and not to show it to anyone who was not worthy of it.

Another of its peculiar virtues [of this square] that have been mentioned is that a man passed by Abu Ja’far al-Man1⁄2ūr1, and the caliph had asked to seek him out in order to kill him. When that man saw him, not agreeing with his situation, he handed him a piece of paper on which was this square nobleman. And when he was brought before the caliph, he ordered the executioner to behead him. The executioner wanted to do as the caliph ordered, but his hand could not hold the sword. The caliph ordered a second and a third executioner, but the sword did not cut the man. Then the caliph said: “Search him!” They searched him and found that piece of paper with him on which was this noble square. The caliph released him, ordered that seven thousand dirham be given to him, and ordered that this noble magic square be written. We have mentioned only part of the virtues [of this Name]. Whoever honors the signs of God, exalted be He, and His names, they honor Him and God honors Him with His great generosity.

[APARTADO SOBRE EL SELLO DEL NO. SUPREMO]

I have to warn you, brothers and seekers of Wisdom, about the [virtue of] the Supreme Name of God: whoever knows it and acts with it, is among those worthy to obtain the Vicarage (aljilāfa) after the relief of the Messenger of Allah, God bless him and save him! And to whom God has granted the grace of this magic square, he will preserve it from the wicked, he will not dispose of it in reprehensible matters, he will focus his effort on preserving it and he will perfume it with musk, perfume and camphor. A person who is unclean shall not carry it with him, and he shall not be brought into the latrines if possible. He will protect himself from the pagans and will guard himself well until such time as he is needed, for then you will obtain his blessing, God willing, exalted be He!

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1 Second ‘Abbasid caliph (r. 754775 AD) and founder of Baghdad.

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Whoever writes them [the letters that compose it] and has dealings with fools, or gives it to one who is not worthy of it, will have the curse of God, of the angels, and of all people, because these seven letters were written on the door of the Ka’aba. And they have angels responsible for them and in charge of
these Names, and they are the servants of their act and of everything that is in the revealed books that comes
from them, so they are very important. If you want these spirits to take care of some matter
, such as bringing a friend of yours into your presence, or driving an enemy away from you, then these Names are
involved in seventy-two works according to the number of angels, so that for each work there is
an angel in charge of it who will appear before you. And these Names participate in the discovery of
the objects sought, the treasures and the objects buried, for they have an enormous secret that is unfindable and uncountable. If you want to use them for what we just mentioned, then write them with saffron and rose water
, hang them on the neck of a white rooster and release it in the place where [the treasure] is supposed to be, because in the place where the rooster stops and digs with its paws and in another version, In the
place he sings, there will be the buried or hidden object.

If you want to use them to destroy and devastate castles, fortresses, and other places, then engrave the seal of good in wax, and on the other side engrave the seal of evil. Then bury it under the threshold of the door and water it with water from the bathroom drain1.

If you want to use them to march quickly from one region (balad) to another, then you will take a sparrow according to the name of whoever you want to move quickly from one place to another: if the work is for a male, then the sparrow will be male, and if the work is for a woman, the sparrow will be female. You will draw the seal on birdskin parchment along with the name of the person who is the object of the work and the name of his mother. Then you will tie it on a sparrow’s leg with a yellow thread and release it with your left hand by throwing it from behind your back. And when you let him go, “Make So-and-so son of So-and-so flee from the place where he is to a distant place, by the right of these Names.”

It’s also very useful for moving and moving [a person] place if you write the seal of evil on a piece of paper. Then you will wash it with water from the bathroom drain and spread the water2 in the place you want. This will take place at the beginning of the night, at a disastrous hour, and the person who is the object of the work having already stopped on the journey. And thou shalt say as the water is scattered: O angels servant of these Names, take charge of driving away So-and-so son of So-and-so, ﴾ And they woke up, and only their dwellings could be seen, ﴿3 and the verses equivalent to it in the Qur’an4. Hayā alwa¬ā al’aŷal alsā’at.

If you want to use them to stone [somewhere], write them on an unfired piece of terracotta, hide it in the highest part of their house, and along with it you will say: ﴾ We rained clay stones on them ﴿5 the verse to the end, His saying: ﴾ leaving them like eaten straw ﴿6, and the surah: ﴾ Haven’t you

1 The seals of good and evil will be reproduced later (p. 181).
2 That is, the water it contains diluted the seal of evil.
3 Cor. XLVI:24.
4 That is, the verses will be recited with a meaning or argument equivalent to the aforementioned verse. 5 Cor. XV:74.

6 Cor. CV:5.

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having seen what [your Lord] did 1 To the end, after you have fumigated it with the incense [conducive to] evil, for you will indeed see something wonderful.

If you want to use them to set fire to the house of an evil person or a renegade of God, then it is not lawful for you to do it to a Muslim, unless he is really deserving of it: you will be responsible for your sins. And if you want that, you will take a white candle, then you will draw the name of the person and the name of the place and you will entrust that to the subordinate angels. Then you will light the candle and as soon as the fire reaches the name and the names mentioned, the fire will act on the house and on the clothes of the people you mention. It’s a dangerous gate, and if you don’t know how to control what we’ve mentioned, it will turn against you and you’ll die. A certain Gnostic already used it against an impious and tyrannical king, and he died [the king] and those who were with him.

If you want to use it to prevent ships from setting sail, or if they set sail from sinking, then write the seal on a wooden cup [and dilute it] with the water from the toilet drain and water from the sea in which the ship is. Then take some water in your mouth and spit it on the ship, for its hatches will really break down and it will never be able to sail.

It is said that alMa’mūm2, when he wanted to amuse himself [with the ships that were] on the Tigris, would draw the seal at the proper time and hang it in the air with a white silk thread in a high place, for Allah, exalted be He, would raise the waves on all sides until [the ships] were about to sink. Knowing that it was the product of the caliph’s works, they implored his help and in this way he amused himself at his expense.

If you want to [use] them to remove from the body the cause of a disease (al’āriÅ),3 put the seal on the forehead of the affected person and recite the incantation over him, for he will really recover, Allah willing, exalted be He!

If you want to use them to free a prisoner, draw the seal [and put it on] some dirt from a cemetery. Then he brings it to the prisoner, [he will insert the seal] around his neck and take it out by his sleeve, and then he will do the opposite. All this after reciting the incantation, because the prisoner will really be released immediately, God willing, exalted be he!

And if you want to operate with it to attract a person, draw the stamp on whatever you can do with them4, or draw it on a clean white paper. You will fumigate it with genie’s nails (aÞfār al-ṣann)5, after writing the name of the desired person and the name of his mother. Then you shall hang it in the air, and indeed the person who is the object of it will come before you, even though he is in chains.

1 It is precisely the surah cv.
2 Seventh Abbasid caliph (d. 833) and son of the famous Harūn al-Rašīd.
3 The term also refers to possession by a genius.
4 Lit. “on his footprint, remnant” (‘allah a£arihi).
5 It possibly refers to the substance known as Þufr alÐīb or Þufr al’ifrīt, an aromatic herb in the form of

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If you want to use them to destroy caravanserais and taverns (aljānāt wal¬awānīt), you will take some hard wax and draw the seal on it. Then you will put the wax inside a handcoat (on the annal), write the spell on its surface and bury it in the place you want, because you will see something prodigious. And if you want to spread the fever to a wicked or unjust person, or to one who makes people suffer, do as I have told you.

Thou shalt know, O seeker, that for all labors the imposition of fasting, purity, the fear of God, the little talking, and the renunciation of sinful acts are indispensable. Under these circumstances, if you write the seal, carry it with you, and walk on water, for your feet will not sink, God willing, exalted be He! And the blessing of this noble and sublime seal lies in the fact that no one knows how to read it in Arabic, except whom God wills, exalted be He! Try to understand, because this seal has magnificent virtues, which we have summarized so as not to stimulate the imagination of the scholar and thus stop at its interpretation and its meaning. Whoever invokes something through it, for it takes place by the grace of God, exalted be He! Have you not heard the words of ‘Ali? For he has indeed said: “The Qur’an has a manifest part and a hidden part, and this blessed seal has a hidden and manifest part: the manifest part is its visible form, and the hidden part is its reading in the Arabic language.”

And returning to what we had for our subject of discussion, I will give you a warning, O brethren and knowers of Wisdom, about the Supreme Name of God: whoever knows it and acts with it, is among those worthy to obtain the Vicarage (aljilāfa) after the relief of the Messenger of Allah, God bless him and save him! This seal has seventy-two dispositions and seventy-two angels, [and if you pronounce the Name the angels, they appear before You]. It will take place on Friday night at the end of the last prayer, and [those angels] are servants of the higher and lower worlds. Have them for your needs. If you honor this Name, the servant angels will honor you, and all that you ask and desire will be fulfilled. You will avoid wine, fornication, eating what is forbidden and violating the precepts of religion, for if you turn away from what I say, you will find prosperity in all your affairs. And if you blow on a boiling pot [after invoking these angels], it will lessen its boiling. So be aware of the power of these noble Names, and hide them from fools and those who are not worthy of them.

If you want to attract the absent person, even if they are a month away, draw the seal on a sheet of paper and write next to it ﴾ By the sky and the one who comes at night! ﴿2 with the letters separated. Then you will hang the sheet [with the seal] in the direction of the person who is the object of the work. The leaf should be hung at a harmonious time for the moon, in which it is in a zodiac sign that corresponds to the element of air. You will perfume it at the time of making it with the well-known jalapa incense. Then you will perform the spell that was mentioned twenty-one times, because the person will really go even if he is chained.

1 According to manuscript B, after spending forty days in that state. 2 Cor. LXXXVI:1.

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If you want to damage the eyesight of an enemy or an evil person, take hardened wax and make a figure (timāl) with it in the shape of the person who is the object of the work. On it you will draw the seal along with the name of the object person and the name of his mother, and you will put two thorn thorns (sidr) in the two eyes of the figure. You will put the image in a black pot and pour quicklime into the pot. Pour some water from the bathroom drain over it and hide the pot near a fire. This will make his eyes sick until he can see neither black nor white. Do not let more than seven days pass, for the person who is the object of it will go blind, and you will be responsible for it on the Day of Judgment. And by God you will not do this work against anyone who is not worthy of it. When you want to undo it, take the figure [out of the pot] and pour the lime into the water, remove the two thorns from the eyes, and then destroy the image or throw it into the water.

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If you wish to injure a member of a person, then engrave the seal in hardened wax: the work shall be done having written the name of the person being the object and having made the image of the person
[with the wax]. Draw the stamp on the figure and draw the stamp on a knife, handle, and blade. With that knife you will hit any member of the figure you want, for certainly the person’s
member will be hurt immediately.

If you want to deprive whoever you want of sleep, make a figure with hard wax. Then write the seal on a knife, on the handle and the blade, and you shall nail it [in the figure, which you have sewn] into the drawstring (dikkat) of your trousers. Then you will hang the pants with one leg on top and another underneath, because the person who is the object of it will not really sleep while the pants continue to hang.

If you wish to harm a person and be overwhelmed by grief, worries, anxieties, and displeasures, so take a bottle with whomever name you want and his mother’s name, [i.e.], then write his name and his mother’s name and write the seal on her after you have made the image [with wax] on her, You will put in the bottle a little sulfur, some pepper and a little good oil. You will mold it in the fire between two graves, for in truth on the person who is the object of it will descend worries, anxieties, diseases and sufferings. Try to understand1.

And if you want to [use] it for love and sympathy, draw the seal on a crystal cup with musk sukk, saffron, and rose water, write the name of the person sought and the name of his mother, and, [after erasing it with water], if you are able to give him that water to drink, he will never be able to part with you. If you are not able to give him a drink from it, splash his clothes with water, for this too will be effective, and he will not be able to separate himself from you for an instant.

1 From this convoluted explanation we deduce that it is a matter of taking a bottle and pouring the ingredients mentioned in it. Then mold a human figure on it with wax, taking advantage of the neck of the bottle (since the term used, “qarūra”, implies a container with a narrow neck) and engrave the names and the seal on the figure, which will have been molded in the fire between two tombs.

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And if you want to [use] it for hatred, to displace someone from his place, or to sow discord between two people, draw the seal with musk, onion juice, and dried myrrh (murr baÐārij)1
on unfired clay. You shall tear the piece of clay to pieces, dissolve it in water from the bathroom drain, pour it out of the nostrils of a dead dog, and turn the dog from its right side to
its left side, saying as you turn it over: “I turn the heart of So-and-so son of So-and-so with respect to So-and-so
son of So-and-so, like the heart of this dog, by the right of these Names”. You must write the seal
of evil, as I will show you below.

And if you want reconciliation between the woman and her husband, engrave the seal on a wedding candle and make two figures from it, placing their faces facing each other. You shall put a little amber in the mouth of each image, recite the incantation over them twenty-one times, and put [the figures] under their heads [under their bed], for they will really love and be reconciled, and perpetual love will take place between them.

And if you want to gain respect among people, trace the seal with musk, saffron, musk sukk, and rose water. Then you will erase it [with water making a filter with it] and put it next to you in a bottle. And if you want to be received by someone important, take a little [of that filter] and anoint your face with it, for everyone who sees you will respect you, consider you an important person, and will humble themselves before you. In this way you will get a good acceptance by all people.

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This is the form of
the seal of good and the seal of evil. [Seal of Good]: a

Seal of Evil: 2

Fig. 31

Fig. 32

And I found in another version of an ancient book that these Names and letters that I have shown you, followed by the šayj Mu¬ammad Qanbarīs3 in the 1⁄4āli¬iyya of Damascus4 that he found this seal engraved on the mimbar of the mosque of the Sufis, and this was his image:

Fig. 33

1 Cf. DOZY, Takmila, vii, p. Question 32.

2 As we noted in the edition of the Arabic text, for the second inscription we have opted for the version of manuscript B that seems to us to be more complete. See the alternatives in Annex II, p. 492.

3 Unidentified.

4 Settlement north of the ancient city of Damascus, on the slopes of Mount Qāsiyūn, and where, according to Yaqūt alRūmī (c. XIIXIII), there was a mosque that housed the tomb of numerous saints (see the article “al 1⁄4āli¬iyya” in EI 2).

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[WITH THE SIT]

This is the aforementioned spell with which all the aforementioned works are completed, and it is to conjure the superior and inferior spirits. You will say: “Šamjyāl 2 times, Šadjyāl 2 times, Isrāfīl, Bakryāl 2 times, Sajarmyāl 2 times, MīÐaÐrūn, Ŷibrīl. Obey, O servants of these blessed names, in such and such a matter,” and thou shalt name what thou wilt of good and evil from among those labors which we have mentioned. These Names will be available in all works connected with this blessed seal of magnificent power. God speaks the truth and shows the way.

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[QASĪDA DEL NOMEN, WE AREUPREMO]

And you should know, brother, may God help us to obey Him and to understand His secrets, that I have included a qa1⁄2īda of Imām ‘Alī, may Allah be pleased with him!, which he composed on the Supreme Name, and this is the blessed and famous qa1⁄2īda1:

It begins with BismiLlāh, with whom my spirit is guided towards the unveiling of the secrets that are hidden in her.

Bāŷ, Ahūŷ, O my God, Muhawŷān.
O Jalaŷalūt, who adorns yourself with the answer.

Pour out a bright emanation from the Lights
upon me, and give life to the death of my heart, BaÅayÅagat.

May the life of the heart rise from that which defiles it,
through the Subsistent One who erects the secret that is in it, shining

5 A flash of the rays of His light
is upon me. Strike my face with a brightness that shines.

Bring down showers of mercy
upon me with the wisdom of our noble Protector who has exalted us.

Fayāyūh, Fayāyūh, oh the best Creator
oh the most Creative and the most generous by definition.

Grant that I may attain grace and all my goals
by the truth of the letters that are gathered in the aliphate.

By the secret of the letters which thou hast deposited in my incantation,
by the light of the radiance of the Name and the Spirit that hath risen.

10 Pour out a bright emanation from the Lights
upon me, and give life to the inert of my heart, Bagalmahat.

Cover me with solemnity and glory.
Take the hand of the enemies away from me, BaÐayÐagat.

Protect me from every enemy and envious
of the right of Šamāj, Ašmaj, Salmat, Samat.

1 The transcription of many of the strange names contained in the poem is figurative, since few vowels appear in the Arabic text.

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Solve, O Lord, my problem with the Light,
make my affairs easier after the difficulty that has been solved.

Deliver me from all threats and violence.
Generous by definition, Who decides the descent of secrecy.

15 Give me over to a sea and grant me the benefit of its land, let the veil fall on me,
and let yourself be seen after the mistake.

Make the hearts of all worlds in harmony with me, and make it acceptable, Bašalmahat.

Bless us, my God, in all that is the product of our works. Untie the knots of difficulty, Yāyūh, loosening.

Fayāyūh, Yāyūh, O the best Creator,
O Who makes our means of sustenance grow by His very existence.

For Thee’s sake we repel enemies from all sides,
and for the Name’s sake we cast them to the ground one by one.

20 You are my hope, O my God, and my Lord.
It deters the bulk of the army if it sets out to lead me into error.

Oh the most sought after and the most generous granting
, oh the most awaited by a generation (umma) that disappears

Light with the Name my star, bright and splendorous throughout eternity and days, O resplendent Light.

In Thee resides perpetuity and constant power for him who comes
to the gate of Thy courtyard seeking refuge, and thus the darkness disappears.

Bāŷ, Awŷ, Ŷalmahūt, Ŷalālat
Yalīl, Ŷalā, Ŷalyūt, ©amā, Tamharŷat

25 Ni’dādbarūm and Šamrāzāmarum
prominent brightness and blessed womb.

You light the lamp of the lamps whose explanation is a secret,You
light the lamp of the lamps with a secret that is illuminated

with a light of high majesty and a roof that distances. Qaddūs Barakūt, with this the fire is extinguished.

Byāh, Byāyāh, Namūh, A1⁄2ālya,
BaÐamÐām Mahrāš, for us to the enemy found.

Bahāl, Ahīl, Šala’,Šala’t, Šāla’,
Æahī, Æahīb, ÆīÐhūb, ÆaÐahÐīt.

30 Anūj, Batamlūj, Banrūj, Barajwā, Batamlījyāyāt, Šamūj, you exalt yourself.

Bahram’s lyrics, lofty and exultant.
For eternity and the ages, Yāyūh, you wait

O Samajā, O Šamajtā, you are Šalamjā,
O ‘YÐlā, who discharges the trembling winds.

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By Æaha, by Yāsīn, by Æāsīn, be for us. by Æāsīnmīm you attract happiness.

By Kāf and Yā’, ‘Ayn, hā’ and his 1⁄2ād.
which contains what is sufficient for us against all threat.

35 By Ahyā, Šarāhyā, Adunay, A1⁄2bā’ut
By Āl Šaday I incantate, then ÆayÐagat.

By Qāf and Nūn, then ©ā’mīm after them.
And in Surah Aldujan there is a secret that you have consolidated.1

Three staffs have been lined up behind a sign (jātim), with a kind of arrows on them.

And a blind and mutilated mīm, then a staircase
in the middle of which there are like the two grooves [of the wheels] that are associated.

After that, four similar to fingertips, which allude to goods and sustenance together.

40 An isolated hā’, then a wāw curved
like a suction cup tube that bends through the secret,

and so its end is like its beginning, a five-pointed seal
, and gathers [under it] the secret.

This is the Name of God, exalted be His power!
and His Names, when the Creation took place, were named.

This is the Name of God, convince yourself, ignorant one!
Do not doubt a burn that causes the spirit to perish, nor the shouting.

Receive these noble Names and hide them,
for in them there are secrets by which there is no deception.

45 In them dwells the covenant and the covenant, the promise and the meeting.
Musk and camphor is really what is scented with.

If its bearer is in the slaughter, it escapes.
Visit the kings without fear with what it entails.

And if there is someone possessed by the jinn, he attacks.
It spills boiling water and separates from the body.

Face without fear and disangle without fear.
Increase the riches and the fruit of the harvest.

From the end of the Torah come four of them,
four from the Gospel of ‘Īsà, son of Maryam,

50 and five are from the Qur’an, and they are its perfection.
Eloquent to every creature, it silences.

You shall not fear any serpent, nor shall you see any scorpion, nor shall a lion come near you, growling.

You will not be afraid of the sword, nor will you fear the dagger. 1 Here begins the classic description of Solomon’s seal.

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55

Neither shall you fear the raging air or the pestilential wind. O Depositary of the Name whose power is exalted!

With which you prevent all adversities and hardships. Bless, my God, morning and evening

to the family and companions of him who recites them [his lyrics], seeking Thy favor, my Lord, through his glory,

and Your most beautiful Names, which they gather.

And you should know that I will not mention the name of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and save him, for several reasons: One of them is that the name of the Messenger of Allah is a light, and if it were mentioned in this place, it would extinguish the light of these noble Names, for their light, may Allah bless him and save him, it comes from the Light of God, exalted be He!1 Understand this, and there is no harm in reciting these blessed Names in order thereby seeking God’s favor after prayer, for their problem will be solved, with Allah’s permission, exalted be He! And the benefits lie in convictions.

APARTADO [ON THE EXPLANATION OF THE POEM AND THE SEVEN SIGNS OF THE SEAL]

This is the explanation of the Names in the words: “Three staffs have lined up behind a seal, and above them stand like spearheads….”2 [These Names] are arranged in unknown characters, and their equivalents are not mentioned in the Arabic letters, nor is their pronunciation in Arabic, nor is it transmitted orally. They only appear in books as you see out of fear of the ignorant and of those who do not fear God, exalted be He!

Below I will explain something about them so that you may have knowledge of their virtue and their blessing. They are distributed in three books: the Torah, the Gospel and the Sublime Qur’an, and no one can pronounce them in Arabic, since only the Gnostics learn it orally from their teachers so that they are not repeatedly heard by the secondary people (ahl alfaÅl). This is a secret of God, exalted be He, for the people of His unveiling (ahl kašfihi), and whenever a Gnostic approaches the unveiling of a secret, his teacher imposes on him the obligation to keep silent about it, for he has already punished himself for what concerns it, and it is forbidden to profit [from disclosure] of that secret.

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As for those that come from the Torah, there are six letters: Those that come from the Gospel are:
And those that come from the Sublime Qur’an are:

1 We believe that it refers to the names of the incantation preceding the qa1⁄2īda.

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2 He refers to verses 37 to 43, which, as we have already said, are the ones that contain the classic description of the seal of Solomon, and that rather coincide with the verses contained in the short version of the chapter in mss. C and D. First, notice that when quoting verse 37, he writes the word sanān, “spearheads,” instead of the term sihām, “arrows,” which appears in the text of the poem itself.

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Understand that, hide it, and be careful about divulging it. Take the advice, carry out the order, and you will succeed with God’s help, exalted be He!

I will now mention those of his peculiar virtues which I can explain, as far as my understanding and knowledge goes. I will overlook the disclosure of that which includes the darker aspects of the secrets, those which the Gnostics oppose [their disclosure], for those rooted in science (alrāsijūna) are well informed of them, just as their Lord said of them: ﴾ They say: we believe in it, everything comes from our Lord. But only those who have judgment reflect ﴿1. And as the noble angels made known, along with their news about the heavenly Kingdom and the earth, when they said, Glory be to Thee! We have no knowledge other than that which You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the Wise ﴿2. And God knows better.

A PARTADO: As for his words: “and our sign behind the three [staffs] is healing for every affliction that enters the body making it sick,”3 it means that when the person suffers from any of the internal diseases, such as colic (qawlanŷ), weakness of the liver and the like, and when the doctors have given up finding its cure and the sages are unable to heal it, You will draw the three canes and after them the sign in this way that we recommend: .
You shall write it seven times in a glass vessel, expose it to the air for three nights, and give it as a drink [after dissolving it with water] to the sick man, for he will really recover, God willing, exalted be He!

A PARTADO: As for your words: “pressing of all kinds of torment”, it means that if there is a person who has wronged you and you cannot claim justice, you will draw the signacle, three staffs and the spearheads. You shall make a [human] figure out of the tail of a ram4, and write the name of the person who is the object of it and the name of his mother. You will draw the signacle, the three staffs, and the spearheads on each of the members of that figure, and you will have placed that figure on a wooden board of a coffin. You will nail it on that same side and hide it near excrement and remains or in an elongated piece of flesh, because really the person who is the object of it will suffer enormous suffering, and as the figure decomposes, the person will be consumed and his body will become emaciated. You will write it for that person whose sin does not deserve to be forgiven and is evil, for you will be responsible for it on the Day of Judgment. And God, exalted be He, knows better.

As for his words: “A mīm for the blood of every ungodly person to flow,” you shall draw on a piece of unbaked pottery a figure, and write on it the name of whomever you wish [to shed his blood] and the name of his mother in ink of ‘aynam 5 on the day of the conjunction of the sun and moon and being in the phase prior to their separation. You will write the mīm, three sticks with arrowheads

1 Cor. III:7.
2 Cor. II:31.
3 In this and the following sections, the author seems to quote some verses or a commentary on the virtues of the

signs that make up the seal of the seven signs, which do not correspond to the previous verses nor have they been previously quoted.

4 sic.

5 The name given to the reddish fruits of a certain tree that grows in the ©ijaz, called ‘anam.

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and the inverted seal. And then you shall throw him into the murky water of a deep well that is not used, for at once your object will be accomplished, and the person who is the object of it will bleed out of the orifices of his body until he perishes. Fear God and take good care of the one who writes it, for you are responsible for it.

APARTADO: As for his words, “a ladder wherewith thou ascendest in the way of the Most High,”1 it is that thou shalt write a ladder with the manner in which it appears [on the seal] on the nail of thy left thumb, and thou shalt go to visit the mighty in quarrels and in the time of need, for you will succeed over your adversaries under all circumstances. You will be respected, obeyed, listened to, influential and close to their wills, so they will solve all your problems.

And if it is written on a sheet of […], put in wax of a wedding and placed under the tongue, [whoever does it] will not fail to be cheerful, content, and in a good place wherever he stops, the tongues of the people who are there and the tongue of every wicked person being bound. And every warrior (mujāhid) will sympathize with him and be pleased with his company, and everyone who sees him, God willing, praise and exalt him!

APARTADO: As for his words: “And behold, four have lined up for our battle,”2 it refers to the extraction of these four [letters] from the alphabet (abiad) and their fractional derivation, for he who separates them, puts them on an iron plate and displays their numerical harmony, and carrying it with him meets the enemy on the battlefield, for he will never be wounded, even if he throws himself between spears and arrows, and he will overcome his enemy. [It will be carried out] while the moon is in DÆRWF ©SWS RDF, and will be worn in the hood after scenting it with the incense of the appropriate incense as possible. Then the Name that is in the Surah of The Wall shall be recited upon it, and His words, may He be exalted: ﴾ Verily, your Lord is God. He has created the heavens and the earth in six days. He then sat on the Throne ﴿3until the end of the verse. He will wear [the hood], for he will indeed be safe in fearful situations and in the dark, and safe from dangerous people. Know that and hide it, for it is one of the peculiar virtues [of this seal].

APARTADO: As for its words: “You will invoke the trees with it, coming in haste”, it means that these four alif, if you extract their Arabic letters, you will draw it in that order on a night in which the moon is in a zodiacal sign of the air element. You will write it on an unfired piece of pottery, and the moon will be in that zodiac sign in favorable conjunction with Mercury. It will be perfumed with the incense known as the “Congregator of the Spirits” (jķāmi’ alarwā¬), and which is called by the masters of spells (arbāb al’azā’im) “incense of alkarāŷīm”4. Then the person who is [at most] fifteen days away shall be summoned, and you shall recite: ﴾ Wherever you are, God will gather you all. God is Mighty over all things ﴿5, ﴾ There shall be but one

1 In allusion to the fourth of the seven signs of the seal. 2 It corresponds to the fifth sign of the seal.
3 Cor. VII:52.
4 Compound that we have not been able to identify.

5 Cor. II:147.

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I shout and they will all appear before Us ﴿1, ﴾ He is able to gather them all together whenever He wants ﴿2. And you will call that person by the name by which they are generally known and is their nickname, because it will appear immediately. Ask him what you want, ask him what you want and solve your problem by doing so, and if you want him to return to his place, repeat the incense and then recite this verse: ﴾ If they say to you: “Go back!”, do it ﴿ the verse until the end3, and the verses that are in the Sublime Qur’an in that sense, and you will say: “Return, So-and-so son of So-and-so, to the place where you were and from which you departed, by the power of Him Who commands it between the kāf and no. 4 of ﴾ When He wills a thing, His Order consists in saying: Be!, and it is ﴿ to the end of the surah”5, and this [latter] is meant whenever we resolve the purpose of the matter we seek.

APARTADO: As for your words: “And our sign for good whose characteristics transform,” you refer to the best sign, which is the isolated hā’6. If you write after it the repeated letter wāw, it is useful for solving problems, for facilitating the affairs and childbirth of pregnant women, for tying the tongue of the one who quarrels with you, for nullifying the effects of black magic (alsi¬r), for freeing the one bound by witchcraft (ma’qūd), the captive and the prisoner, and for procuring sustenance, to increase the blessing in the food and to control the anger of the impetuous person. You will write that down and carry it with you, seeing through his blessing the wonderful. And if you write it backwards, that is, the wāw repeated before the hā’, and after them five isolated letters hā’, then this causes worries, anguish, disturbances, headaches, nightmares and bleeding from the orifices of the body. And if you want it to disable the dwelling and the shop, for the woman who is prevented from marrying, and to go on a journey, whether by sea or land, you will draw it on a red sheet and put it under something heavy, with the name of whoever you want written and the name of her mother. In the case of bleeding, after you have perfumed the leaf with myrrh, aloe, and asafoetida, you shall put it inside a Persian reed, wrap a thread around it, tie a lead pellet of the hunters at the end of the thread, and bury it in a channel of water flowing eastwards. for the person who is the object of it will not stop bleeding from all the orifices of his body until he dies […] after three days, for it comes from the spheres of Mars, and acts in the shedding of blood and in the destruction of souls with magnificent efficiency. God knows best!

APARTADO: As for his words: “so that you may destroy all armies and triumph,” it means that you will extract this noble letter, transcribe it in Arabic, and put it in a magic square of letters, inside a table, on the fourteenth day of the month. The moon will be in a fixed zodiacal sign and of the earth element, [free] from nefarious influences, the sun will be in its direction and rising, and the ascendant will be one of the zodiacal constellations that will be the mansion of Jupiter. When all these circumstances are met, then that really is the red sulfur and the supreme triaca, because if it is

1 Cor. xxxvi:52.
2 Cor. XLII:27.
3 Cor. xxiv:28.
4 In reference to the word “kun,” which represents the divine imperative, as it appears in the following quotation from the

Koran.
5 Cor. xxxvi:81.

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6 Sixth sign of the seal.

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he takes someone with him among the troops, he rises with victory and his rival is defeated and destroyed, because really his bearer does not cease to be under the protection and custody of God, God willing, exalted be he! And if he takes it with him and talks with him, his heart is strengthened, his complicated affairs are made easier, matters are quickly resolved as he asks them, he acts in the world as he wishes, and even the angels obey him. When he walks, the long distance is shortened for him, and the ends of the earth are raised for him until he sees what is far away as he sees what is near. The spirits communicate with him and inform him of those hidden aspects of invisible matters, and he witnesses among the wonders of his blessing the indefinable and inexplicable.

And among its virtues is that if you write [on] a book, a piece of paper, or anything you want, you cover it up and put it under your head, its contents are corrected, and you will find in its margins a writing with all the refutation or demonstration you want, or else [you will find written] the legal authority (wilāya), the annulment, concession, or action of any kind and of whatever person it is. This is a limit over which there is no more limit, and an extreme beyond which there is no more extreme. Do not make excessive use of it and have faith in its effect, for this is the promise of God that resides in preservation and concealment.

I have merely clarified the symbols for you, and in the allusions lies the meaning of the words. He who is God-fearing has in it a resource for all things and is provided without limit. God speaks the Truth and He shows the way.

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Below I will write again the Names, their invocation and the seal on which all that we have mentioned depends:

This is the blessed and noble invocation in which You will say: “My God, I pray Thee for the isolated hā’ of Thy most Supreme Name, for the three staffs behind her, for the curved alif, for the blind and mutilated mīm, for the ladder, for the four that are like the palm of the hand without a wrist, by the isolated hā’ and by the prolonged wāw, the form of Your Noble and Supreme Name. I ask you to bless our Lord Muṣṣṇa the number of times of each letter that the Calamus has written, and to solve my need, which is such a thing,” and you will mention it, your intention being right. This is the shape of the aforementioned square:

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Fig. 34

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After this noble and blessed square follow seven of the letters of the aliphate, which are of the letters b absent in the blessed surah Fatia, each letter of them having one of the Names of Allah, exalted
be He!, [which appear] after the letters mentioned, and the explanation of which is found in the noble square, And they are as you can see:

zjÞ£šŷf

zakī jabīr ýāhir ¢ābit šakūr ŷabbār fard (pure) (knowing) (visible) (firm) (grateful)(omnipotent)(unique)

APARTADO: [LA TABLA DE LA VIDA Y LA TABLA DE LA MORTE]

If you want to know the condition of the sick person or the absent person, know the day on which the patient fell ill or on which the traveler departed, add the numerical value of the letters of his name and that of his mother, add to it the number of the days elapsed in the Arab month and add to it a base of 20. Get the total result and subtract thirty at a time until you get thirty or less. Get the resulting number and apply it as I will describe below in the two tables called the Life Table and the Death Table. Wherever the account falls, he passes judgment concerning death or life, for it will certainly be that, God willing, exalted be He!

In the same way, if you want to know the status of the spouses, and whether they will correspond or separate, or if one of them will die before the other, calculate the total number of letters in the name of both. Add to both the number of the elapsed days of the Arab month and add a base of 20. Subtract and apply [the resulting number] in the Table of Life and the Table of Death, and if both are on the Table of Life, they will be together and will not be separated, and if it is on the Table of Death one of the two, will either separate from the other or die next to it. Check. The same if you want to know the situation of the two friends or the two partners. And also if you want to solve any of your problems, do everything as we have said, after knowing the day on which the association took place. You will do the same if you want to know the situation of a sage when you enter a territory, you will know the day on which he entered it, you will compute the name of the sage, you will add to it [the number of days] that have elapsed in the Arab month and the basis [of twenty] as we said before. Take the result, apply it to the two tables, and make a verdict on it by what results with respect to death or life. And if you want to know the situation of the pregnant woman and the newborn and whether she will live or die in this childbirth, you will calculate the name of the woman, the name of her mother and the name of the day you are on that month. You will add to this the base and the number of days elapsed in the Arabic month as you learned. Subtract it, and if an odd number falls on the Tablet of Life, the woman will give birth to a girl, if an even number falls, the woman will give birth to a boy, and if it falls on the Tablet of Death, the child will not live. In the same way the newborn baby, when he is born in that birth, adds to it the basis and the passage of the Arab month as we have mentioned, subtract and apply it [to the Tables], for

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if he falls into the Tablet of Life, he interprets his life in it, and if he falls into the Tablet of Death, he interprets in it that he will not live. He acts in the same way to know the victor and the vanquished, and for every complicated matter, God is wiser!

This is the image of the two Tablets. Meditate and you will find the right way, if God, exalted be He, wills.

Fig. 35

Fig. 36

BENDITION (FĀ’IDA) CALLED THE GREATER QUMQUMA 1, beneficial for every disease that is in the body: you shall write it on a sheet, make a filter with it after having dissolved it in water, and drink [from it]. And if you write it in a clean container, erase it with a little good oil, and anoint it with anyone who has some disease, for truly God, exalted be He, will cause it to disappear from it, if He so desires. Meditate and you will find the right path:

NUMERICAL TABLE OF DEATH NUMERICAL TABLE OF LIFE

1 The word “qumquma” usually designates a kind of vessel with a narrow neck.

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BCONDITION TO FREE THE PRISONER: THE PRISONER WILL TRAMPLE CLEAN EARTH, THEN SPREAD THAT EARTH ON A CLEAN WOODEN BOARD, AND THE FOLLOWING SQUARE WILL BE DRAWN IN THE FIRST HOUR OF FRIDAY. Then the prisoner will take him with him after praying two rak’at, for he will be released quickly, God willing, may He be exalted! It has already been tested numerous times, and this is the 3 x 3 number square:

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18 11 16 13 15 17 14 19 12

Fig. 38

A condition taken from a certain šayj of those who profess Oneness (ahl altaw¬īd), may Allah be pleased with him! The jayj said: “If you have a need of Allah, exalted be He, and its solution is delayed, go to the mosque of your choice and stop in its qibla and stand in front of Allah, exalted be He!” and say: “O Allah, I go to you and at your door I stop, by your side I seek refuge and I pray to you. For Muṣammad, may God bless and save him, and the family of Muṣṣṣṇa I beseech Thee, by Thy holy and chosen ones, I beg Thee to intercede. Solve, my God, my need and console my sadness.” Then you will mention what you need and want. After that, you will pray two rak’at, reciting in each one the Fatey of the Book, the surah of the Cult, the surah of the Disbelievers and the two protective surahs1. And you will say in the last prostration: ﴾ And Ayyūb, when he implored help from his Lord saying: “Evil has touched me, but You are the Most Merciful of the Merciful.” And we answered him by taking away from him the evil he had. And We gave him back his family, giving him as much, as a mercy from Us and a remembrance for the worshippers ﴿2. Then you shall lift up your head and recite the greetings (al-taiyyāt)3 and blessings, and when you have finished the prayer, stand up, stand in front of the qiblah, and shaking it say: “My God, Your knowledge makes me dispense with words, and Your favor makes supplication unnecessary for me. My God, when Arabs and foreigners ask for protection through them, they are protected, for You are the God of the Arabs and of the foreigners, and they take refuge in You. So protect me and do not reject me by frustrating me, I expect the answer from You, attend to me, solve my problem and grant me what I desire and what I ask of You, by Your Mercy, O most Gracious of the merciful”.

1 Suras cxii, cix, xciii and xciv.
2 Cor. 21:813.
3 The term designates certain words that are spoken after the ordinary prayer.

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Then you will ask God, exalted be He, for He will really answer your prayer with His favor and His generosity. Have good intentions and beware of asking for what is not allowed to you, because
the Prophet (may Allah bless and save him!), said: “Deeds depend on intentions, and each person will be rewarded according to what he intended.” And through conviction you will get what you want, for it is God
Who helps in what is right.

BTHE CONDITION of which the Supreme Name of God is said to reside in it. You will say: “My God, untie this knot, make the difficulty disappear, provide me with the goodness of what is easy, spare me the misfortunes of fate, grant me the convenience of what I ask and spare me the misfortune of the final destination. My God, my argument is my need and my weapons are my lack, my means (wasīla) is my lack of resources, my intercessor is my tears, my capital is the non-existence of my abilities, my treasure is my incapacity. A drop from the seas of Thy magnanimity enriches me, and a pinch of the great wave of Thy indulgence is enough for me. Sustain me, have mercy on me, heal me, forgive me, solve my need, console my anguish, relieve my worry, and cover me with Your Mercy, O most Merciful of the merciful. May God bless and save our Lord Muhammad, his family and his companions.

OBLESSING, according to Ibn Mas’ūd1, may Allah be pleased with him, said the Prophet (may Allah bless him and save him), [who said]: “Whoever is overcome by a worry or affliction, let him say: ‘My Allah, I am your servant, [son of Your servant and] son of your handmaid, my forehead (nā1⁄2iya) is in Your hands, Your decision is piercing in me, Your sentence is just for me. I ask You, O Allah, for every Name that belongs to You, by which You named Yourself and that You sent down in Your Book, every Name that You made known to any of Your creatures, and every Name that You reserved in the science of the hidden with You. [I ask You] to make the Qur’an the springtime of my heart, the light of my breast, the brightness of my sight and of my affliction, as well as the disappearance of my sadness and my anguish.” For God, exalted be He, will make their sorrow disappear by putting joy in its place. And a man said to the Messenger of Allah, “Shall we make these words known?” And he said, Of course it is, it is fitting for him who hears them to make them known, but they are not to be taught to any fool.”2 Try to understand.

And I heard a certain devotee say in a proven invocation:

My God, make what you
desire match what we desire

so that what I desire does not become different from what we desire.

For who am I to desire
that which differs from the desire of God?

If the servant would strive and desire
what he is and not what he desires

1 One of the Prophet’s most famous companions. 2 A¬mad, no 3528, 4091.

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What we want would not make sense.
Treat us with whatever you want.

﴾ But you will not unless God, the Lord of all the worlds, wills ﴿1

Know, may God help us to obey Him and understand the secrets of His Names, that I have seen those who practice ecstatic raptures (ahl wijān) draw on their hands, in the late hours of the night, this magic square of 10 x 10 whose explanation follows. And beseeching God, exalted be He, with Him and with His holy and noble Names, which are at the beginning of the Surah of El Hierro. Also, whoever traces them in the aforementioned square and carries them hanging, is heard and attended to in his prayers, if God, exalted be He, willing.

And I have seen in the Noble Sanctuary [of Jerusalem] (al-aram©alšarīf)2 a woman with shaggy hair and in whose hand was a gold plate. On it was the said square, and it said: “O Lord, O Lord, O Lord, by this [square] and by the sacred Names and sublime secrets that are in it, [I invoke you] to provide me with my sustenance without difficulty or effort. Verily, Thou art the One Who does what He desires.” Then there came down from heaven a table on which was abundant gold and on which was a decree (barā’a),3 which said: If you would ask Allah to bring you before your family, He would bring you before them immediately, because you have called on Allah with His Name, the One with whom if you pray you are attended and if you ask it is given to you.” [Said square] is profitable for all things. God speaks the truth and He leads the way. And this is the shape of the square to which reference has been made:

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1 Cor. LXXXI:29.
2 Enclosure of the ancient temple of Solomon and in which the mosque alAq1⁄2à is framed. 3 The term refers to a writing that confers immunity or exception.

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He said ®ū lNūn alMi1⁄2rī,1 God have mercy on him: I saw a young man by the Ka’aba who was exceeding the number of prostrations in prayer, and being far away from him I said to him: “You are exceeding yourself in prayer,” and he said: “I am waiting for permission to leave.” Then I went up to him
and saw a piece of paper fall on him on which he had written: “From the Mighty, the Forgiving, to My faithful servant: Go with the forgiveness of your former and future sins.”

And Anas b. Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet met a man praying, and when he had finished reciting the šahāda he continued: “My God, I pray Thee because praise belongs to Thee, there is no god but Thee, O Compassionate, O Benefactor, O Creator of the heavens and the earth, O Living, O Subsistent.” And the Prophet said: “Do you know what he invoked?”, and we said: “Allah and His Messenger are wiser”, “He has indeed called upon Allah with His Supreme Name, with which if he is asked he answers, and if asked, he grants 2. There are ten names, the One, the One, the Eternal, the One Who does what He wills, the Hearer, the Seer, the Capable, the Almighty, the Strong, and the Immovable.” And there is nothing superior to their effectiveness, as he said: “They are very beneficial for serious and complicated matters.”

This is the invocation of the Names of which each of them is said to be the Supreme Name of God, and it is as follows: “My God, I beseech Thee because to Thee belongs praise, there is no god but Thee, O Merciful, O Benefactor 5 times, O Creator of heaven and earth, O Lord of Majesty and Generosity, O Living, O Subsistent, O Gracious, O Merciful, O One, O Eternal, O Lord of Majesty and Generosity, O Giver, O Best of Heirs, O Indulgent, O Near, O Hearer, O All-Knowing. ﴾ There is no god but You. Glorified Are You! Verily I have been of the unrighteous ﴿3, O most Gracious of the Merciful, O Who hears the prayer, O our Lord, O our Lord 5 times, I ask Thee by Thy name Allāh 5 times, Who ﴾ there is no god but Him, Lord of the Noble Throne ﴿4, ﴾ Alif lām mīm ﴿, ﴾ Kāf hā’ yā’ ‘ayn 1⁄2ād ﴿, ﴾ Æā’ sīn mīm﴿,﴾ Æā’sīn﴿,﴾ Æā’sīn﴿,﴾ ©ā’mīm﴿,﴾ ©ā’mīm﴿,﴾’Aynsīnqāf﴿ .﴾ God is enough for us! What an excellent Guardian! ﴿ 5. I ask Thee, for this sake and for all the verses, for all the Names and the glory that is in them, O ﴾ Who hath neither begotten nor been begotten, and there is none like Him ﴿6, that Thou wilt bless and save our Lord Muhammad and his family and companions.” Then you will ask for whatever you need, and it will be fulfilled, God willing, exalted be He!

Know that, may God help us to understand His secrets, that the šayj ‘Abd Allāh Muṣammad b. Ismā’īl alAjmīmī7 is one of the best Realized (mu¬aqqiqūna) and of the greatest Gnostics (‘ārifūna), the author of unusual and manifest miracles, the possessor of the highest states and truthful breaths, Allah, exalted be He, may he have it in his glory! He said, “I was on a spiritual retreat (jalwa),

1 Abū lFayÅ ¢awbān b. Ibrāhīm alMi1⁄2rī (d. 861 CE), called ®ū lNūn, was one of the most celebrated Sufi mystics.

2 Cf. Al-Nasā’ī, no. 1283; Amad, no. 13081, 13297, and others. However, the rest of the “goodbye” quoted here does not appear in any of the versions we have found.

3 Cor. XXI:86.
4 Cor. xxiii:117. 5 Cor. III:173.
6 Cor. CXII:34. 7 Unidentified.

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And I saw a luminous figure in the form of an eye, within which was the [Name] of the Majesty, from which was derived every Name in which the letter ‘ayn was found, except the name ‘the Embellished’ (alJamma). When I died this figure in my memory, I [copied it and] looked at it on the sheet, and I said to myself, “It may be from this that the ninety-nine [most beautiful names of God] are derived,” and I focused on it. [Then I had a mystical rapture, and in it I was told, “Give thanks for the knowledge you have received through God’s help.” Then I asked God’s forgiveness, exalted be He, I thanked Him and abandoned that idea that had arisen in me.”]

These are nineteen names that are derived from the Majesty, and the Majesty outside of them is the culmination of the twenty [names]. They have virtues of a glorious nature and of magnificent certainty, so that when the one who follows the Path (alsālik) wants to attain Realization (al ta¬aqquq)2 through them, he witnesses wonderful illuminations and extraordinary effects in the upper and lower worlds. And he will not pray to God, exalted be He, anything that He does not actually grant him.

He said: And whoever has a need concerning this world or the Hereafter, let him pray two rak’at in the middle of the night, and when the prayer is over, let him recite these Names: “O Allāh, the Hearer, the Most High, the Exalted, the Exalted, the Resuscitator, the Creator, the High, the Effective, the All-Knowing, the Honor-Giver, the Forgiving, the Immense, the Grouper, the Beautified”, 1673 times with submission, humility, full intention and adequate spiritual condition, in a place without noise. The minimum that must be recited is seventeen times3, facing the qibla. Then he will ask God, exalted be He, for what he needs, for he will really solve it and provide him with his means of subsistence. Especially if it is a question of one who asks God, exalted be He, the facility to understand some of the mystical sciences and luminous secrets, for surely God, exalted be He, will open for him through His name ‘the All-Knowing’, a door and a way to his goal, so that he will perceive the wonders that reside in the meanings of Gnostic knowledge. to which only the greatest scholars and those rooted in Science have access.

b

He who stares at them every fifteen times every day while reciting His Name, exalted be He, God reveals to him the secrets of the gustatory sciences4 and the sacred wisdom subtleties, and causes
the subtleties of the lights of the rewarding Authority to flow from his heart through His favor and His generosity.

Whoever carries it with him after his 2ikr, Allah, exalted be He, guards him in all his actions, preserves him from all misfortunes in all his vicissitudes, and protects him from the injustice of the wicked and the cunning of the libertines. He covers him with the mantle of respect and distinguishes him with the crown of magnificence. And whoever puts it in writing for some matter related to the transfer or the trip,

1 See above, p. 102, where we find a story almost identical to the present one, and by means of which we complete the text.

2 Realization involves the contemplative vision of God in the forms of His Names (NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, vi, 245).

3 The sum of the figures in the previous number.

4 The concept of tasting is opposed to the concept of knowledge in Sufi thought, so that knowing is not the same as experiencing or tasting.

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it is guarded and protected from unfortunate events. And if he wears him hanging on his right arm and marches among his enemies, God, exalted be He, defends him from his wickedness and saves him from his cunning. And whoever goes with it before some powerful person, he lets himself be carried away by his words and trembles before his irruption, God changes his despotism in humility before him, influences his soul according to his desire and God grants him what he seeks avoiding his wickedness, if God so wills, blessed and exalted be He! for it is one of the sublime secrets.

If this harmonious figure (alwafq) is written in a glass vessel with rose water, musk, saffron and camphor, and whoever has a bodily or spiritual ailment drinks from it, it causes it to disappear, for this gives its bearer strength in his body and spirit. and it covers him with respect and solemnity in the eyes of those who behold.

And to him who recites them every day after the dawn prayer seventy-seven times, being among the sum of his supererogatory prayers (awrād), goods and the increase of riches come quickly upon him, divine gifts descend upon him, he sees blessing in his spiritual and earthly affairs, he will witness in himself prodigious things and extraordinary secrets to the point that his aspiration will almost never depend on him again of any creature, and God, exalted be He, will impose on the hearts of the people affection for Him. Consider it, because it is one of the greatest triacas.

The jayj [al-Ajmīmī] said: “O Allāh, O Hearer, O Foreseeer, O Resurrector, O Creator, O Righteous, O Helper, O Efficacious,” at important moments, seventy thousand times with full aspiration and presence of heart, while looking at the figure with the secret of Majesty. Then a wicked person will be cursed and he will be punished on the spot. And whoever is harmed, harmed, or wronged by any powerful person, who repeatedly calls on these Names in the first hour of the first Sabbath [of the month], in the first hour of Sunday, in the second hour of Monday, in the first hour of Tuesday, in the third hour of Wednesday, in the fourth hour of Friday, in the first hour of Saturday night, In the tenth hour of Sunday night, in the third hour of Monday night, in the fourth hour of Tuesday night, in the first hour of Wednesday night, in the fifth hour of Thursday night, and in the fourth hour of Friday night, for truly, with the might of God, exalted be He, he will be punished before the close of the week. That will be done in each of all those hours mentioned, for then you will see something prodigious, with the permission of the One who provides the means and holds the reins. Walls have ears, and God is the Giver of Success, the Benefactor.

This is the shape of the circle alluded to:

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Fig. 40

And returning to what we had for our subject of discussion, you must know, God help us to understand His secrets and to fulfill His obedience, that this noble harmonious figure who follows has many virtues, the explanation of which we have abbreviated so that it does not fall into the hands of some fool. This is your way, try to understand and you will prosper.

Fig. 41

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You should know, may Allah help us to understand His secrets, to fulfill His obedience and to understand His sublime Names, that our lord ‘Ali [b. Abī Æālib], gate of the city of knowledge of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and save him, was asked what should be prayed with in order to solve the needs, and he said: “Recite six verses from the Surah of El Hierro: ﴾ Everything in the heavens and the earth glorifies God. He is the Mighty, the Wise. as far as He says He knows what is in hearts ﴿1, and the last part of the Surah of The Reunion: ﴾ He is God. There is no god but Him. He knows the unknown and the apparent. He is the Gracious, the Merciful ﴿2 until the end of the surah. Then you will say, “My God, O One Who is in such a way and does not cease to be in such a way, 3 put a solution and a way out of my problem.” Mention your need, and He will attend to you.

1 Cor. LVII:16.
2 Cor. Lix:22.
3 It is understood that in this part of the prayer praise to God is to be expressed in the terms preferred.

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ONTHE MISSING LETTERS OF THE SURAH FĀTIHA AND THE MAGIC SQUARES AND INVOCATIONS THEY HAVE.

You should know, may Allah help us to understand the secrets of His Names, that the letters fā’, jīm, šīn, £ā’, Þā’, jā’ and zāy are among the missing letters of Surah Fāti¬a, and to each letter corresponds one of the Names of God, exalted be He!

To the fā’ corresponds of the Names of God that of ‘Odd’ (Fard), to the jīm ‘Omnipotent’ (Ŷabbār), to the šīn ‘Grateful’ (Šakūr), the £ā’ ‘Steadfast’ (¢ābit), the Þā’ ‘Protector’ (Ýahīr), the jā’ ‘Shrewd’ (Jabīr) and the zāy ‘Pure’ (Zakī).

These seven letters are perceptive of good and happiness, and also perceptive of punishment and vileness. As far as its signs of good are concerned, the letter fā’ is [corresponding to the verse] ﴾ No! I swear by the sunsets of the stars, which, if you know, is a great oath ﴿1. The letter jŷīm is ﴾ they will enter the gardens of Eden ﴿2. The letter šīn is ﴾ God testifies that there is no god but Him ﴿the verse [to the end] 3. The letter £ā’ is ﴾ Then We have given the Book as an inheritance to those of Our servants whom We have chosen ﴿4. The letter Þā’ is ﴾ On the outside will be Mercy; on the inside, in front, will be torment ﴿5. The letter jā’ is ﴾ There will be some [companions], chosen and beautiful ﴿6. And the letter zāy is ﴾ Men have been embellished with love for everything desirable ﴿7. When you wish to do a work of good, write the letter you want in relation to what you want, and write next to it the verse that is co-resting, and thus you will obtain what you want, God willing, exalted be He!

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Regarding what has been said in the second place, these seven letters are perceptive of torment, in the same way that they are perceptive of good. So you will also write them for torment. They act on the seven days, each of the seven letters having one of the days of the week that corresponds to it. Sunday is of the Sun, its servant angel is Rūqiyā’īl and of the earthly ones King Mu2hib8. Monday is of the Moon, its servant angel is Jabrá’īl and of the earthly is King alAbyaå. Tuesday is from Mars, his servant angel is Samsamā’īl, and from the earthly he is the king of Alamar. Wednesday is Mercury’s, its heavenly servant is Mīkā’īl, and earthly is Burqān. Thursday is of Jupiter, its servant is 1⁄4arfiyā’īl and of the earthly is the angel Šamhūraš. Friday is from Venus, its heavenly servant is ‘Ayniyā’īl, and from the

1 Cor. lvi:789. In this and the following Qur’anic quotations, the quotation begins in Arabic with the corresponding letter. 2 Cor. XIII: 25; xvi:31; xxxv:33.
3 Cor. III:18.
4 Cor. xxxv:32.

5 The correct quotation should be ﴾ Mercy will be within; on the outside, in front of it, will be torment ﴿ (Cor. LVII:13). It would have to be considered a writing error, if it were not for the fact that it is in this way that the author makes the quotation begin with the corresponding letter Þā’.

6 Cor. LV:69.
7 Cor. III:14.
8 The earthly are the seven kings of the jinn (see DOUTTÉ, Magie et Religion, p. 160, where his list of the

to

seven kings differs from the present one).

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earthly is the angel Zūb’ah. And the Sabbath is of Mīmūn, i.e., Saturn, his servant is Kasfiyā’īl, and of earthly kings is Abāfūj. Understand that.

AITEM1 b

Certainly these seven letters are perceptive of torment, so write them also to torment, writing the seven and beginning with the letter šīn according to the succession of days. You will write in the opposite direction what is requested and you will say in your invocation to them: “[I invoke you] to do with So-and-so son of So-and-so, or So-and-so daughter of So-and-so”, mentioning the types of misfortunes and illnesses that you want, after writing the letters in their corresponding way, the day and the object of the ritual. And you shall say in your invocation:

“O Severe, O Mighty, O One, O Visible, O Heir, O Almighty, O Creator. My God, send such a thing down on So-and-so, son of So-and-so. My God, O Severe in punishment, O Perpetual after the extinction of His creatures, according to the Decree you desire and the Power you hold. O One Whose existence has no nexus and no end. O Whom none of His creatures equal, O One whose foretenance has no beginning and whose post-eternity has no end, ﴾ the day when God will not humble either the Prophet or those who have believed with him ﴿2, ﴾ Humiliation and disgrace will fall on the unbelievers on that day ﴿ 3, O Severe in torment and punishment, ﴾ verily the violence of Thy Lord is great ﴿ 4, ﴾ those who are unfortunate shall be in the Fire: there they shall breathe out sobs and sighs ﴿5, ﴾ verily the tree of Zaqqūm shall be the food of the sinner, as molten metal shall boil in their wombs, as the boiling of boiling water ﴿6. O Mighty, O Overcomer, O One Who has no equal, and to Him belongs the decision of all things, Thou art the Mighty, the Absolute, the Eternal, none helps Thee in Thy Might. O Visible in the Might, O Who said, and is the most Truthful of narrators: ﴾ But no, Hell flames by tearing the skin from the head ﴿7, ﴾ There will be no shadow or protection from the flames ﴿8. O Heir, Thou art the One to whom things and existence are due, and to whom the whole Decree is due. O Who causes beings and those in them to perish, and proclaims ﴾ to Him To Whom belongs the Sovereignty on that day: to God, the One, the Victorious ﴿9. Everyone who has a prayer for a hidden or visible matter, little or much, depends on You inexorably. My God, bring down upon So-and-so son of So-and-so perdition, disgrace, and torment, ﴾ Today you will not ask to perish once, but many times ﴿10

O Almighty, Thou art the One Whose authority rules over all creatures by means of Omnipotence, without needing the warning of a watchman. Verily Thou art the One Who combines the strength of the nafs and the strength of the heart in the densities of the bodies, with Thy higher Imperative (jabarūt), pure in Thy reality; and made it an attribute of Your Ipseity, a manifestation of Your dominion and a trait of Your pre-eternity (azaliyya). Truly You are the Lord of Omnipotence, of the Imperative, of the Imperative.

1 The same section is incomplete in chapter nine (supra, p. 142). 2 Cor. LXVI:8.
3 Cor. XVI:27.
4 Cor. LXXXV:12.

5 Cor. XI:106.
6 Cor. XLIV:4143. 7 Cor. LXX:1516. 8 Cor. LXXVII:31. 9 Cor. XL:15.
10 Cor. xxv:14.

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