Like Plato, al-Ghazali uses parable to discuss painting less as an aesthetic
object than as a trope. The wall painting, executed by the Rum artists
suggests outwardly oriented mimesis, representing an absent reality. This
deficiency emerges only when the curtain is pulled aside, revealing reflec-
tion, both physically and cognitively. In constructing the story, al-Ghazali
compares a painter in the usual sense to Plato’s metaphorical painter
holding a mirror to the world.
Signifying the polished heart of the Sufiadept, the mirror enables the
viewer to see the absence inherent in the image. The image is revealed as
supra-real; matter becomes visible in its quiddity, through the irony of its
re-presentation in the ethereal space on the other side of the glass. This
absenting of apparent presence, or revelation of presence as absence,
represents experiential knowledge enabled through Sufi intuition.
Whereas ibn al-Haytham observes that“reflection itself weakens light
and color,”al-Ghazali underscores the metaphorical nature of this inter-
nalized mirror as a sacral space magnifying the glory of the physical
world.^14
The curtain indicates the distinction between mundane and sacral space.
Although frequently used today to refer to female body covering, in the
Quran the wordhijabindicates a spatial boundary. In the Quran it can
indicate the boundary between humanity and God:“It is not granted to any
mortal that God should speak to him except through revelation or from
behind a veil, or by sending a messenger to reveal by His command what he
will”(Q42:51). Similarly, in Sura 19, Mary separates herself from her family
using a partition to create a sacred space where she can receive the
annunciation. Yet it can also indicate a physical curtain, as when, in the
Quran, visitors to the compound of the Prophet are entreated to address
the wives of the Prophet from behind a partition (Q33:53); or when a
hidden partition separates non-believers from Quranic recitation
(Q17:45).^15
This understanding of the veil, both protective and prophylactic, as the
boundary of perception permeates Islamic discourses. On the one hand,
non-believers do not partake in the bounty of Quranic recitation through
audition. On the other, the veil shelters the uninitiated from the over-
whelming power of divine encounter. This usage relates not so much to the
nounhijabas to the verbkashafa, referring to God removing the covering
from the eyes of believers (Q50.22, 53.57–58). TheHadithindicate that
there are 70,000 veils between God and creation. These veils become the(^14) Smith, 2008 : 162. (^15) Berger, 1998 :93–96.
136 Seeing through the Mirror