All the world has appeared by His Light
yet how can He be revealed through the world?

The Essential Light is not in the manifestations.
Its glorious Majesty would devastate them.

Let go of your intellect and be with the Real.
A bat’s eye cannot bear the sun’s brilliance.

In that state where the Real’s light proves itself,
what room is there for Angel Gabriel’s speech?

Though a lofty angel is near the Divine Court,
he can’t reach the state of “I have a time with God.”

As that light burns even a pure angel’s wing,
it would scorch the whole of reason head to foot.

Reason’s light is to the luminous Essence
like the light of the eye dazed by the sun.

from Garden of Mystery, The Gulshabn-i-raz of Mahmud Shabistari
tr. Robert Abdul Hayy Darr