And when Moses sought water, sought the sending down of the rains of knowledge, wisdoms and meanings from the heaven of the spirit, [for his people,] We said, We commanded him to strike the staff of the soul on which he supported himself in his attachment to the body and his remaining fixed on the earth reflecting upon the rock of the brain, which is the foundation point of the intellect: ['Strike with your staff the rock,] and there exploded from it twelve fountains, of the waters of knowledge according to the number of human emotions, which are the five outer senses, the five inner ones as well as the considerative rational and practical [ones]: that is why the Prophet said: 'Whoever loses a sense, then verily he has lost knowledge'; each people came to know their drinking-place, that is to say, the people of every [kind of] science [came to know] the source of that science, such as the artisans, the scholars working from the source that is the practical intellect; the wise and the gnostics [from the source that is] the considerative [intellect]; the tanners from the science of seeing colours; the music makers from the science of sounds and so on. According to the second interpretation: We commanded Moses, the heart, to strike the staff of the soul upon the rock of the brain and there exploded from it twelve fountains, which are the mentioned emotions each of which is specific to one of the twelve mentioned powers, namely, the tribes of Jacob, the spirit. Each one came to know its drinking-place. 'Eat and drink of that which God has provided, that is, profit from what God has provided you in the way of knowledge, action, states and stations; and do not be degenerate in the earth, seeking corruption', do not go to excess in corruption out of ignorance.
