the fountainhead of the concepts beyond the symbols and imagery in baha-e-valad's maaref

in order to express his visionary experiences, baha-e-valad has innovated his own symbols and imagery. such illustrations of imagination may be interpreted as the product of his intuitive experiences of visits to the realm of ideas referred to as a vision of one's self in psychological, mystic terms. the present study, in an attempt to study and analyze the nature of the symbols in baha-e-valad's maaref, and to shed light on the origins of his images, reveals that the clue to these images and symbols is the companionship of god with him. it is through realizing such a divine companionship that he achieves the divine unification, while in a holistic view, extending such an experience to the whole universe, he attributes its resulting exaltations to all the elements in the universe. in fact, he interprets his taste of the divine as a manifestation of the companionship and unification of the unique creator with the lay creature, evidenced on the basis of a theory of perfection according to which all elements of the universe are assigned a divine duty.