After his explanation of the importance of symbology, Hazrat Inayat Khan now unfolds the symbolic meaning of water in the spiritual context.

In the old scriptures, such as the Vedanta and the Old Testament, spirit is symbolized as water. One wonders why something which is next to earth should symbolize spirit. But, just as the nature of water is to give life to the earth, so the nature of the soul is to give life to the body. Without water the earth is dead; so is the body without the soul. Water and earth both mix together. So the spirit mixes with matter and revivifies it. And yet the spirit stands above matter, just as water gradually lets the earth sink to the bottom and itself remains above the earth. The spirit is hidden under matter, as the soul is hidden in the body, in the same way as water exists beneath the earth. There is no place where water does not exist, though there are places where earth is not to be found. Thus, nowhere in space is spirit absent, and only the absence of matter is possible.

The symbolical way of expressing lofty ideas does not come from the brain. It is an outcome of intuition. The beginning of intuition is to understand the symbolical meaning of different things, and the next step is to express them symbolically. It is in itself a divine art. The best proof of it is to be found in the symbol of water, which so aptly expresses the meaning of spirit.