In this cradle the breath was restrained:
The child of the kingdoms ¹-of-nature was in the sleep of, non-existence.
Although the essence continued to behold in a summary
The loveliness of details, circumstances and attributes,
It desired that in other mirrors
It might display its unveiling to its own gaze.

We might quote many similar passages from other Arabic and Persian works, but from those which we have now adduced it is clear that even some of the most earnest and thoughtful Muslim sages have been led to admit the existence of a kind of plurality in the oneness of the divine nature. In the first place, the authors whom we have quoted distinguish the absolute, unknown, transcendent essence (ذات) from both the first and the second unveiling (تجلّيّ), and they confess that thought and reflection cannot attain to the comprehension of that pure essence. Secondly, they separate the first unveiling or self-manifestation (تعيّن) from this unknown and absolute essence in such a way that the essence becomes manifest to the essence itself, and knowledge or consciousness is differentiated from the essence, or, as Jami says:—

Before Him He had a mirror showing the invisible:
The whole unveiling He had with Himself. ²

So, as we have seen, according to Jilani, the first self-manifestation is called the universal reason, and in this degree, although the realities of the stable contingents are comprehended in the knowledge or consciousness of the essence, yet (since they are not separate from it) Kashani says that the first unveiling is termed the 'court of the oneness' (حضرة اْلاحديّة) or the unique majesty. Thirdly, they distinguish the second unveiling or self-manifestation from the first in this sense that in this degree of the essence the sources (أعيان) of the stable contingents (الممكنات اْلثّابتة)—that is to say, the realities and the origins of (أصُول) those things which are hidden in God's essence—appear and are differentiated, but only in God's knowledge. That is, when God wished to create things, He first introduced them into His own knowledge and purpose. Hence this unveiling denotes the energy of the action and purpose of the essence, just as the first unveiling means the eternal knowledge of the essence. In this way we see that certain Muslim sages have endeavoured to explain God's holy essence as a sort of Triad for, differentiating the essence from knowledge and knowledge from the energy of action and purpose, they admit that only in the degree of the first and second unveiling is God known, and only by means of this second unveiling do the hearts of God's worshippers obtain rest and peace.