And they entered to him, seeking proximity to him by means of having been edified with the refined manners (ādāb) of spiritual individuals, because of the reassuredness of the soul and its illumination and the illumination by it of those [animal] faculties, and their having been trained by the configurations of virtues and [noble] character traits, seeking provision from the nourishing beneficial forms of knowledge in the way of character traits and the divine precepts; and he recognised them, together with the virtuousness of their state and their goodliness, by means of [his] astuteness and purity, and their impoverished need of the meanings they were seeking from him, but they did not recognise him, because of the superiority of his level over theirs, as a result of [his] disengagement, and his possession of qualities which they were unable to comprehend, and that is why he sought the presence of the practical rational faculty with his statement:
