Surah 46: al-Aḥqāf
46:2 The sending down of the book is from God, the Exalted, the Wise.
These words are sent down by the Lord. They are His book and message, His sweet talk and blessed speaking. They are from a Lord whose name is Exalted, which means “exalter.” The name means that He exalted the faithful by making them the object of His address and worthy of His book and message. He made their hearts the quarries of the lights of His secrets.
For seventy thousand years the pure ones of the Empire and the proximate ones of the Exalted Threshold had put down the prayer carpets of obedient acts in the station of generous gifts. In the khanaqah of sinlessness they leaned in service on the prayer grounds of reverence: We are those in rows, We are the glorifiers [37:165-66]. At the Exalted Threshold they never found the proximity that these dust-dwellers saw, for they were mere servants, but the latter were both servants and friends: He loves them, and they love Him [5:54]. We are your friends [41:31].
Those angels were flying birds, standing, devoted, and prostrating. Their subtle makeups were adorned with sinlessness and trimmed of slips. But the nests of birds are one thing, and the oyster shell of the night-brightening pearl is something else. The Adamite's makeup is the shell for the pearl of the heart, the heart is the shell for the pearl of the secret core, and the secret core is the shell for the pearl of gazing on the Real.
You say, “Dust is the cause of ruin.”
I say, “Their saying is 'Ruins are the homeland of the Real.'”
You say, “That homeland is unknown.”
I say, “The unknown homeland is the place of the sultan's treasure.”
That exalted man said,
“Seek the religion from the poor, for reigning kings
have the custom of keeping treasures in ruined places.” [DS 466]