The Five Divine Presences

Ibn Arabi's school maps manifestation as five hadarat, Presences — graded planes on which the Absolute discloses itself: the Essence beyond all disclosure; the plane of the Names; the world of Spirits; the world of Images (the alam al-mithal, where meanings take form and visions are real); and the sensory world. Set it beside the Kabbalah's ladder — Ein Sof; Atzilut; Beriah; Yetzirah; Assiah — and the two align world for world, down to the imaginal plane where prophets see and dreams mean, which the Kabbalah calls Yetzirah, the world of the angels. No borrowing is documented in either direction. Two traditions, pressed by the same question — how does the One become the many without ceasing to be One? — drew the same five-story house.