(44) I am not known, but I am one who knoweth thee

(5) I am he, whose names are hidden, and whose abodes are mysterious for all eternity

(42) All men who are aware of their ignorance tuck up the flap of their garment and say earnestly: 'O thou who art not seen although thou makest us to know thee, everyone is thou and no other than thou is manifested. The soul is hidden in the body, and thou art hidden in the soul. O thou who art hidden in that which is hidden, thou art more than all. All see themselves in thee and they see thee in everything. Since thy dwelling is surrounded by guards and sentinels how can we come near to thy presence? Neither mind nor reason can have access to thy essence, and no one knows thy attributes. Because thou art eternal and perfect thou art always confounding the wise. What can we say more, since thou art not to be described!'

(80) So, there is no other one hidden except God alone. But he is revealed to everyone, and yet he is very hidden. He is revealed because God knows all. And if they do not wish to affirm it, they will be corrected by their heart. Now he is hidden because no one perceives the things of God. For it is incomprehensible and unfathomable to know the counsel of God. Furthermore, it is difficult to comprehend him, and it is difficult to find Christ. For he is the one who dwells in every place, and also he is in no place. For no one who wants to will be able to know God as he actually is, nor Christ, nor the Spirit, nor the chorus of angels, nor even the archangels, as well as the thrones of the spirits, and the exalted lordships, and the Great Mind. If you do not know yourself, you will not be able to know all of these.

(4) And should you experience a revelation of that One by means of a primary revelation of the Unknowable One, should you know him, you must be incognizant! And if you become afraid in that place, retreat because of those activities (that disrupt tranquillity); And should you become complete in that place, stay still! And as in your own case, be further aware [that] it's like this with [everyone], just as in (your) case!

(25) By bending upon them the awakened inner light, there comes a knowledge of things subtle, or concealed, or obscure.

(2) The Face is revealed to the Eye of the Only One, and the round of darkness is broken through. I am one of you

(1) "Since your wisdom has become complete and you have known the Good that is within you, hear concerning the Triple-Powered One things you shall guard in great silence and great mystery, because they are not to be spoken to anyone except those who are worthy and able to hear. Nor is it fitting to speak to an uninstructed generation concerning anything higher than perfect. But you have concerning the Triple-Powered One, who exists in Blessedness and Goodness, the cause of everything by virtue of encompassing a vast magnitude even though he is One. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] ... [...] of [preconception], not as if [through things that exist] within comprehension [and knowledge] and [understanding.

(23) O pardon us, our sins are a heavy burden! Thou art hidden from us, though the heavens are filled With Thy light, which is brighter than sun and moon! Thou art hidden, yet revealest our hidden secrets! Thou art hidden in Thy essence, but seen by Thy bounties. Thou art like the water, and we like the millstone. Thou art like the wind, and we like the dust; The wind is unseen, but the dust is seen by all. Thou art the spring, and we the sweet green garden; Spring is not seen, though its gifts are seen. Thou art as the soul, we as hand and foot;

(7) Let no one outside know it, it is a mystery which is not known to the common people. Do not reveal it to any one, may he be thy father or thy son, except thyself. It is a real mystery, and every one of these things is unknown to all men

(3) An old woman offered Bu All a piece of gold saying: 'Accept this from me.' He replied: 'I can accept things only from God.' The old woman retorted: 'Where did you learn to see double? You are not a man of power to bind and unbind. If you were not squint-eyed would you see several things at once?'

There is neither Ka'aba nor Pagoda. Learn from my mouth the true doctrine - the eternal existence of Being. We

must not see anyone other than Him. We are in Him, by Him, and with Him. We may also be outside these states. Whoever is not immersed in the Ocean of Unity is not worthy of the race of men.

The day will come when the Sun will draw' aside the veil which covers it. So long as you are separate, good and evil will arise in you, but when you lose yourself in the sun of the divine essence they will be transcended by love. While you loiter on the road you will be held back by faults and weaknesses. Have you not yet realized that in your body there are conceit, vanity, self-pride, selflove and other dirty things! Though the serpent and the scorpion may seem to be dead within you they are only asleep; and if something touches them they will wake up with the strength of a hundred dragons. In each of us is a Hell of serpents. If you make yourself secure against these unclean creatures you may remain tranquil; if not, they will sting you even in the dust of the tomb until the day of reckoning.

And now, O Attar, leave your metaphorical discourses and return to the description of the mysterious Valley of Unity.

The Hoopoe continued: 'When the spiritual traveller enters this valley he will disappear and be lost to sight because the Unique Being will manifest himself; he will be silent because this Being wiU speak.

'The part will become the whole, or rather, there will be neither part nor whole. In the School of the Secret you will see thousands of men with intellectual knowledge, their lips parted in silence. What is intellectual knowledge here? It stops on the threshold of the door like a blind child. He who discovers something of this secret turns his face from the kingdom of the tuo worlds. The Being I speak of does not exist separately; everyone is this Being, existence and nonexistence is this Being. '

(12) 'That Self is hidden in all beings and does not shine forth, but it is seen by subtle seers through their sharp and subtle intellect.'

(8) And concerning all these matters, you have heard certainly. And do not seek anything more, but go. We do not know whether the Unknowable One has angels or gods, or whether the One who is at rest contains anything within himself except that very stillness. For he , lest he be diminished. It is not appropriate to further dissipate through repeated seeking. It was appropriate that you know and that they speak with another. Instead, you will lead them [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

(3) Hail to you, ye Lords of Eternity, ye whose attributes are concealed, and the place where ye reside is unknown

(1) DARKNESS becomes invisible by light, and specially by much light. Varied knowledge (αἰ γνώσεις), and especially much varied knowledge, makes the Agnosia to vanish. Take this in a superlative, but not in a defective sense, and reply with superlative truth, that the Agnosia, respecting God, escapes those who possess existing light, and knowledge of things being; and His pre-eminent darkness is both concealed by every light, and is hidden from every knowledge. And, if any one, having seen God, understood what he saw, he did not see Him, but some of His creatures that are existing and known. But He Himself, highly established above mind, and above essence, by the very fact of His being wholly unknown, and not being, both is super-essentially, and is known above mind. And the all-perfect Agnosia, in its superior sense, is a knowledge of Him, Who is above all known things.

(3) "Ye then in particular are the refuse of the Treasury and ye are the refuse of the region of the Right and ye are the refuse of the region of those of the Midst and ye are the refuse of all the invisibles and of all the rulers; in a word, ye are the refuse of all these. And ye are in great sufferings and great afflictions in your being poured from one into another of different kinds of bodies of the world. And after all these sufferings ye have struggled of your-selves and fought, having renounced the whole world and all the matter therein; and ye have not left off seeking, until ye found all the mysteries of the kingdom of the Light, which have purified you and made you into refined light, exceedingly purified, and ye have become purified light. "For this cause have I said unto you aforetime: 'Seek, that ye may find.' I have, therefore, said unto you: Ye are to seek after the mysteries of the Light, which purify the body of matter and make it. into refined light exceedingly purified.

(3) And [she said to me:] "It is appropriate [that you know him] at first, so as [not to forfeit your] kind. [And when you succeed], then . When [you receive] a conception [of that One, then] you [are filled with] the Word [to completion]. And then [you become divine] and [you become perfect. You receive] them [ ] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] ... [...] the seeking [...] [...] the Existence [...] If it [apprehends] anything, it is [apprehended by] that One and by that which is comprehended, which amounts to the same thing.

(2) And in accord with that activity of thine, the secondary power, even the Mentality from which derives Blessedness: Autoer, Beritheus, Erigenaor, Orimenios, Aramen, Alphleges, Elelioupheus, Lalameus, Yetheus, Noetheus! Thou art great! He who knows thee knows the All! Thou art one, thou art one, O Good one, Aphredon! Thou art the Aeon of aeons, O perpetually existing one!'

(4) Verily, while he does not there know, he is verily know- ing, though he does not know (what is [usually] to be known) 1; for there is no cessation of the knowing of a knower, because of his imperishability [as a knower]. It is not, however, a second thing, other than himself and separate, which he may know. 31: Verily where there seems to be another, there the one might see the other; the one might smell the other; the one might taste the other; the one might speak to the other; the one might hear the other; the one might think of the other; the one might touch the other; the one might know the other.

(12) You honor me and whisper against me. You, the vanquished, judge those who vanquish you before they judge you, because in you the judge and partiality exist. If you are condemned by one, who will acquit you? If acquitted by him, who will arrest you? What is in you is outside, and one who fashions you on the outside shapes you inside. What you see outside you see within you. It is visible and your garment. Hear me, hearers, and find out about my words, you who know me. I am the hearing all can reach; I am speech undecipherable. I am the name of the sound and the sound of the name. I am the sign of the letter and the designation of the division. I . . . light . . . great power . . . will not move the name . . . to the one who created me. I will speak his name.