1. Existence has an essence and names
Hidden from us and from it we are absent

2. It is that which is the essence of the visible
Of events from which they draw sustenance

3. It pictures things from nothingness
Appearing through them and in them, hiding

4. Judgement belongs to the names which show
What is required, so types and shades

5. Understand my words and grasp them and do not
Interpret them wrongly, for in interpretation lies harm

6. Do not think of incarnation in our words
Nor of union, for things are opposites

7. Never! The true existence is not like them
For it is false, erased by attainment

8. Were it not for His will, specifying
Through knowledge, there would be no showing and expression

9. God is the light of the heavens, hear and understand
And the earth, and the light eliminates the dark

10. That light, its meaning is existence, just as
With things, it gestures to the dark

11. And the trait of light is to eliminate darkness
This analogy, in which there is no hesitation

12. But here, in the speech of God, it came
In relation to things, intimating

13. So relation in it is to the peerless
A decree from God, justice, and equals are peers

14. Just as the Creator said, with it many stray
And many are guided, O empty ones!

15. So understand the symbols of God's speech rightly
Guided by it, and leave interpretations they came with

16. And strip this light of its relation
And see, is there continuity for the whole universe?

17. You know annihilation and eternity in the creed of our masters
The people of wisdom, O first letter and O second!

18. And you know God, exalted is He from you and
From other than you, for there is no other and the self is blind