g -

TSI TR Sm=—

   

The Divine Command
(al-Amr).

The Divine Intellect or
the Holy Spirit (Ruh
al-Quddus).

The First Intellect (al-
‘Aql al-awwal) or the
Spirit (ar-Ruh) or the
Supreme Pen (al-Qalam
al-a‘la).

The first Intellect or the
Spirit.

THE SPIRIT

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Universal Nature (at-
Tabi‘ah) or the Divine
Exhalation (Nafas ar-
Rahman).

The Supreme Element
(al-*Unsur al-a‘zam) or
principial  Substance
(al-Haba).

Universal Soul (an-Nafs
al-kulliyah) or the
Guarded Tablet (al-
Lawh al-Mahfuz).

Materia prima or cosmic
substance (al-Haba or

al-Hayula).

The most “central” image of the Spirit on this
earth is Man. But every form necessarily omits certain
aspects of its prototype and so the Spirit reveals com-
plementary and less ‘‘ central” aspects of Itself in other
terrestrial forms. For example it is revealed in the
form of a tree of which the trunk symbolises the axis of
the Spirit passing through the whole hierarchy of
worlds while its branches and leaves correspond to the
differentiation of the Spirit in the many states of
existence.

A Sufi legend, probably of Persian origin, tells that
God created the Spirit in the form of a peacock and
showed it in the mirror of the Divine Essence its own