Sheikh Ruzbihan Baqli (1128 -1208 CE) was a Persian poet, mystic and Sufi master who, after travelling through the middle east, settled in Shiraz, where he taught for fifty years. Although he did not have a religious background, he was granted visions at the age of three, seven and fifteen, according to his autobiography, The Unveiling of Secrets. His lineage has not continued, but his writings continue to be studied in some Sufi circles.

I saw God on the streets of the hidden with something in His hand. I said, “My Lord, what is it that you are holding?”

He said, “Your heart.”

I said, “Does my heart have such a station that it lies in Your hand?”

He gazed at my heart, and it looked like something that was folded up. He smoothed and spread it out, and my heart covered the space from the Throne to the earth. He said, “This is your heart, and it is the most vast thing in existence.”

Then He took my heart to the angelic regions and I went with Him, until I reached the treasures of the hidden in the hidden.

Translation Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut