76 AN INTRODUCTION TO SUFI DOCTRINE

of the light and on the nature of the prism.

In the world which is beyond form or the spiritual
world (‘alam al-arwah or, al-Jabarut) the variety of the
reflections of one single archetype appears as a “‘rich-
ness” of its aspects one contained within another as
are the many logical aspects of one single truth or the
beatitudes included in a single beauty. At this level
of existence their variety is as far as possible from any
repetition because it directly expresses the Divine One-
ness. In the same way, the different archetypes mu-
tually include one another. In the world of individua-
tion, on the other hand, the reflections of an archetype
manifest themselves successively because here the cosmic
condition of form enters in as a delimitation or re-
ciprocal exclusion of the various aspects. It is this
world—and it includes psychic as well as bodily forms
—which is called the “world of analogies’ or the
“world of the alike” (‘alam al-mithal)' because the
forms which in it are manifested successively or simul-
taneously are analogous one to another through being
analogous to their common archetype. In the lower
levels of existence, such as the corporeal world (‘Glam
al-ajsam)—the variety of forms closely approaches
repetition, expressed by the quantitative mode, but
never reaches it, for in pure repetition all the distinct
qualities which constitute the world would be dissolved.

If the variety of the reflections of one single
archetype is envisaged in connection with their tem-
poral succession, which may be taken as a symbolical

1. This is also called the ““world of imagination® (‘alam al-khiyal).