names— of a faultless, transcendent Beauty which is manifested from beyond the veil of the Unseen. However, since the Necessary Existent’s Most Pure and Holy Essence resembles absolutely nothing at all and His attributes are infinitely superior to the attributes of contingent beings, His sacred beauty also does not resemble the beauties of creatures and contingent beings, and is infinitely more exalted. Certainly, an everlasting beauty one manifestation of which is vast Paradise together with all its exquisiteness and beauty, and one hour’s vision of which makes the inhabitants of Paradise oblivious to it cannot be finite, nor have any like, equal or peer.

It is clear that the beauties of a thing are in accordance with itself; and there are thousands of sorts of beauties which all differ according to the different sorts of beings. For example, beauty perceived by the eye is not the same as something beautiful heard with the ears, and an abstract beauty comprehended by the mind is not the same as the beauty of food relished by the tongue; so too, the beauties appreciated and perceived as beautiful by the external and inner senses and the spirit are all different. For example, the beauty of belief, the beauty of reality, the beauty of light, the beauty of a flower, the beauty of spirit, and the beauties of form, compassion, justice, kindness, and wisdom. Similarly, since the utter and infinite beauties of the Most Beautiful Names of the All-Beauteous One of Glory are all different, the beauties in beings also differ.

If you want to observe one manifestation of the beauties of the All-Beauteous One’s Names in the mirrors of beings, take a sweeping look with the eye of the imagination at the face of the earth supposing it to be a small garden; you will see that terms like mercifulness, compassionateness, wisdom, and justice allude to both the names, and acts, and attributes, and qualities of Almighty God.

Observe the sustenance of foremost man and of all living creatures, which arrives regularly from behind the veil of the Unseen, and see the beauty of Divine mercifulness.

Then consider the miraculous sustenance of all young, and the two pumps of milk hanging over their heads on the breasts of their mothers, as sweet and pure as the water of Kawthar, and see the captivating beauty of Divine compassion.

Then observe the peerless beauty of Divine wisdom, which