Here  is a small portion of one of the ‘Divine Flashes’ of Fakhruddin Iraqi. For more about this thirteenth century Persian mystic, see this earlier post. Iraqi’s theme of veiling and unveiling is similar to that in the verse of the Hasidic master posted here, and further discussed in this Letter.

The Beloved hid His Face with seventy thousand veils of light and darkness, that the lover might grow used to seeing Him behind the screen of creation. But when at last the sight is accustomed to this trick, and Love rattles the chains of ardor, then one by one—with Love’s succour and the strength of desire—the lover may tear away those veils. The splendrous rays of majesty will sear away all fantasies of otherness, till the lover sits upon Love’s very throne.  He will become ALL; and

what he takes he’ll take
with His hand from Him,
what he gives he’ll give
from Him to Him.

Perhaps the Prophet was alluding to this when he said “The prayer without you is better than seventy.” That is, a prayer offered without your you-ness excels seventy ordinary ones; for while you remain with yourself, all seventy thousand veils hang before you. But when you are absent from yourself, who remains to be veiled?

Tr. William C. Chittick and Peter Lamborn Wilson