Ibn Arabi refers to the middle of the imaginal world of autonomous forms
and images asmu’allaqa,“in suspense”:“not inherent in a material sub-
strate like the color black in a black table but‘in suspense’in the place of
their appearance, in the imagination, like an image‘suspended’ in a
mirror.”^56 Similarly, Rumi indicates a mirror that reveals color as part of
the deceptive play between the Cosmos and the Real, the color of the glass
in which luminosity becomes visible.
Rumi continues:
Once the Chinese felt their work was complete
They banged their drums to celebrate this feat,
The king arrived and saw such paintings there
That stunned him, for their beauty was so rare;
Then he went to the Greeks, who quickly raised
The screen in front and left him more amazed:
The image of that work which was sofine
Reflected on the walls that they’d made shine–
Whatever he’d seen there shone on each wall,
Out of their sockets eyes began to fall!
The Greeks stand for the Sufis clearly:
Without techniques from books of theory,
They’ve cleansed their breasts so well that they shine bright
Free from all stinginess, desire and spite.
The heart’s a mirror with such purity
It can reflect forms from eternity:
Such a pure image, boundless, unlike art,
Shone through the hand of Moses from his heart;
These forms the heavens even can’t contain
Nor throne, nor ocean, nor an open plain,
For they’re all numbered and delimited,
While hearts are one and they’re unlimited–^57
Like Nizami’s depiction of theArtangtablet, the painted wall resembles
the cosmos without embodying it. This cosmos/painted wall must be
present/painted to enable revelation in the mirror. As in Plotinus’allegory
of the two stones, if neither wall is painted–if there is no competition of
the artists–we have only two walls (or two stones) and thus have no
opportunity for vision. Ibn Arabi explains:(^56) Corbin, 1966 : 407. (^57) Rumi, 2004 : 212–214.
152 Seeing through the Mirror