۞

« of the worshippers. Then God will let him experience that which His friends (awliyāʾ) and elect (aṣfiyāʾ) experienced, which is the rank of tasting (madhāq).8 He [Abū Bakr al-Sijzī] said, ‘He [Sahl] then mentioned to us the following’: One day Abraham , Friend of the Lord of Mercy, was in the desert on an extremely hot day, and he was afflicted with great thirst. He saw an Abyssinian man tending some camels, so he asked: ‘Do you have any water?’ He replied, ‘O Abraham, what do you prefer: water or milk?’ He said: ‘Water.’ 7 Böwering, Mystical Vision, p. 72, cites an almost identical passage from Sarrāj’s Kitāb al-Lumaʿ, except that the explanation »