Sec. 83.  This he apply’d himself to; and as for the Negative Attributes, they all consisted in Separation from Bodily Things.  He began therefore to strip himself of all Bodily Properties, which he had made some Progress in before, during the time of the former Exercise, when he was employ’d in the Imitation of the Heavenly Bodies; but there still remained a great many Relicks, as his Circular Motion (Motion being one of the more proper Attributes of Body), and his care of Animals and Plants, Compassion upon them, and Industry in removing whatever inconvenienc’d them.  Now all these things belong to Corporeal Attributes, for he could not see these things at first, but by Corporeal Faculties; and he was oblig’d to make use of the same Faculties in preserving them.  Therefore he began to reject and remove all those things from himself, as being in no wise consistent with that State which he was now in search of.  So he continu’d, confining himself to rest in the Bottom of his Cave, with his Head bow’d down, and his Eyes shut, and turning himself altogether from all sensible Things and the Corporeal Faculties, and bending all his Thoughts and Meditations upon the necessarily self-existent Being, without admitting any thing else besides him; and if any other Object presented itself to his Imagination, he rejected it with his utmost Force; and exercis’d himself in this, and persisted in it to that Degree, that sometimes he did neither eat nor stir for a great many Days together.  And whilst he was thus earnestly taken up in Contemplation, sometimes all manner of Beings whatsoever would be quite out of his Mind and Thoughts, except his own Being only.

Sec. 84.  But he found that his own Being was not excluded by his Thoughts, no not at such times when he was most deeply immers’d in the Contemplation of the first, true, necessarily self-existent Being.  Which concern’d him very much, for he knew that even this was a Mixture in this simple Vision, and the Admission of an extraneous Object in that Contemplation.  Upon which he endeavour’d to disappear from himself, and be wholly taken up in the Vision of that true Being; till at last he attain’d it; and then both the Heavens and the Earth, and whatsoever is between them, and all Spiritual Forms, and Corporeal Faculties; and all those Powers which are separate from Matter, and are those Beings which know the necessarily self-existent Being, all disappear’d and vanish’d, and were as if they had never been, and amongst these his own Being disappear’d too, and there remain’d nothing but this ONE, TRUE, Perpetually Self-existent Being, who spoke thus in that Saying of his (which is not a Notion superadded to his Essence.) To whom now belongs the Kingdom?  To this One, Almighty God.[22] Which Words of his Hai Ebn Yokdhan understood, and heard his Voice; nor was his being unacquainted with Words, and not being able to speak, any Hindrance at all to the understanding him.  Wherefore he deeply immers’d himself into this State, and witness’d that which neither Eye hath seen, nor Ear heard; nor hath it ever enter’d into the Heart of Man to conceive.