Self Manifestation of Divine Names

Tbn al-‘Arabi treated the key cosmogonic subject of the hierarchy of God’s *Most-
beautiful Names’ (a/-asma’ al-husna) in at least four non-discrete texts, or extracts,
produced at different times beginning relatively early in his career. The first of these,
composed around 596/1200 in Eastern Andalusia, was incorporated as a chapter in the
systematic-cosmological section of the K. ‘Anga’ mughrib (The Book of the Fabulous
Gryphon) and may be examined in my translation and study of that work.! The other
three tracts, from the Shaykh’s K. Insha@’ al-jadawil wa-l-daw@’ ir (The Composition of
the Columns and Circles)’ and two chapters (4 and 66) of the Furithar al-makkiyah, will
be translated in the present article. The redaction of the Insha’ was drawn out over a long
period of time. but the particular passage that concerns us here (our Text I, below) was
probably first drafted in Tunis in 598/1202 at the home of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s teacher and
friend, Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Mahdawi.’