Third Stopping-Place
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And there is not a thing but extols His glory and praise.27
FIRST TOPIC
According to the meaning of And there is not a thing but extols His glory and praise, everything has many aspects that give onto God Almighty like windows.
The reality of the universe and all beings is based on the Divine Names. The reality of every being is based on one Name or on many. All sciences and arts are also based on and rely upon a Name. The true science of philosophy is based on the Name of All-Wise, true medicine on the Name of Healer, and geometry on the Name of Determiner, and so on. And in the same way that each science is based on and comes to an end in a Name, the realities of all arts and sciences, and of all human perfections, are based on the Divine Names. Indeed, one group of the most learned of the saints stated that the Divine Names constitute the true reality of things, while the essences of things are only shadows of that reality. And that even only apparently as many as twenty manifestations of the impresses of the Divine Names may be seen on a single living creature. We shall try to make this subtle yet vast truth easier to understand by means of a comparison. And we shall analyze it by passing it through a sieve two or three times as it were. However long our discussion, it would still be short. And it is necessary not to become bored.
When a very skilful portraitist or sculptor wishes to paint a picture of a very beautiful flower or to sculpt a great beauty belonging to mankind's fair sex, firstly he determines the general shapes of those two objects with a few lines. His determining is made through an ordering and adjusting, through an estimating and measuring. It is according to rules and limits defined by geometry.
This ordering and measuring demonstrates that it is carried out with knowledge and wisdom or purpose. That is to say, the acts of ordering and limiting turn on the compasses of knowledge and wisdom. In which case, behind the ordering and limiting, the meanings of knowledge and wisdom govern. The compasses of knowledge and wisdom, then, point to themselves and they demonstrate that, within those limits, they have begun the portrayal of small particulars like the eyes, ears, nose, leaves, and stamens.
Now we see that the members determined by the motion of those inner compasses are taking shape artistically and carefully. Since this is so, the one who turns these knowledge and wisdom compasses possesses meanings of craftsmanship and care; it is they who command and then display themselves.