And when Abraham said, 'My Lord show me how You give life to the dead', in other words, make me attain the station of eyewitnessing at the station of certain knowledge, which is why his faith was affirmed with the [use of the] affirmative interrogative hamza [a-] in He said, 'Why [a-wa-lam] do you not believe?', that is, do you not know that for certain, to which Abraham, peace be upon him, responded by saying: 'Yes, but so that my heart may be re-assured', that is, so that it may be at peace and its reassurance may be actualised as a result of the eyewitnessing, for the eye of certainty brings about reassurance but not [certain] knowledge. Said He, 'Take four birds: that is, the four faculties that prevented him from the station of the eyewitnessing and the witnessing of the true life. They say that these [four birds] were a peacock, a cock, a raven and a dove or, according to another version, a duck. The peacock represents wonder, the cock passion, the raven ravenousness, the dove love of this world as it consists of its home and its nest; it would appear that [the fourth bird] was a duck, which would then constitute an allusion to the covetousness that is its predominant characteristic; and twist them to you, that is, tilt them and draw them towards you by restraining them and preventing them from going forth in pursuit of pleasures and inclining to their habits. It is said that he was commanded to slaughter them, pluck out their feathers and mix their flesh and blood by pounding them together, but to keep their heads with him, in other words, to prevent them from their acts and remove their configurations from the soul, to suppress their motivations, natures and habits through spiritual discipline, retaining in them [only] their fundaments; then set a part of them on every mountain, that is, from among the mountains that are in your presence, namely the four elements which are the pillars of his body. In other words, suppress them and make them die so that nothing remains but the fundaments centred in your existence and the substances thereof that are deposited in the very natures of the elements that are within you. There seven mountains which accordingly allude to the seven limbs that constitute the parts of the body; then summon them: in other words, if you become alive through their life, then they are disobedient and dominate you, wild, reluctant to accept your command and so if you kill them you will then be alive with the true life that is bestowed [by God] after annihilation and effacement, whereupon they become alive through your life, and not through their own life, the life of the soul that is obedient to you, compliant with your command such that if you [now] summon them, they will come to you in haste. And know that God is Mighty, victorious in vanquishing [disobedient] souls, Wise', vanquishing them only through wisdom. It [the verse] can also be understood as referring to the gathering of beasts and birds, in which case the [act of] setting the parts of these [birds] on the mountains represents the nourishment of the body through these [attributes] and his [Abraham's] summoning them and their coming to him in haste represents their orientation towards man after the resurrection.