and knowledge of them has followed them by virtue of its dependence on them.
Just as their roots are three sciences, so the friends of God in them belong to three tiers. Those of the middle tier have one hundred and twenty-three thousand, six hundred and eighty-seven principal stations. Each station contains stations that time does not allow us to enumerate, because some are interwoven with others. In them nothing avails except tasting alone.
(The Cloak of Supreme Greatness and the Waist-Wrapper of Grandeur)
The remainder of the numbers is divided between the two other tiers, the two that appeared in the cloak of Supreme Greatness and the waist-wrapper of Grandeur. They nevertheless have, from the waist-wrapper of Grandeur, a thousand and twenty-odd stations beyond what we have mentioned. These stations have a particular quality not found in the stations of the cloak of Supreme Greatness.
For the cloak of Supreme Greatness is manifested from the name the Outward, and the waist-wrapper from the name the Inward. The Outward is the root, while the Inward is an originated relation. Because it is originated, it has these stations. Branches are the place of fruit: in the branch is found what does not appear in the root, namely the fruit. Although its support comes from the root, which is the name the Outward, the ruling differs.
Our knowledge of the Lord arises from knowledge of the self, because the self is the guide: “Whoever knows himself knows his Lord.” Although the existence of the self branches from the existence of the Lord, the Lord’s existence is the root, and the existence of
