Osman

“In order to have a real insight into the matter, we must keep in mind the following point: it is not the case that an extraordinary vision comes first to a mystic, and that then he tries to describe it through a metaphor or a series of metaphors. Quite the contrary, the vision is itself the metaphor or metaphors. There is no discrepancy here between the level of the original vision and the level of its metaphorical expression. There is in this respect no room for free choice for the mystic with regard to the "metaphor" to be used. When a mystic uses the word light, for example, in describing his vision of Reality, he has not chosen it for himself from among a number of possible metaphors. Rather, the metaphor has forced itself upon him, for light is simply the concrete form in which he sees Reality.”
― Izutsu Toshihiko, Creation and the Timeless Order of Things: Essays in Islamic Mystical Philosophy