al-ʿUraybi

Ibn ʿArabi's first spiritual master:

“The first time I visited my shaykh, before I even saw his face, I told him: ‘Instruct me before you see me, so that I can observe your advice. Then you will not look at me until you see your robe of honour upon me.’

He said: ‘This is a very high and noble aspiration, my son. Close the door, remove all intermediaries, sit with the One who gives freely, and He will speak to you without a veil.’

I acted on this advice until I saw its blessing. Then after that I went to him and he saw its robe on me. He said: ‘This is it, like this. If not, then not.’

Then he told me: ‘Erase what you write, forget what you memorise, be ignorant of what you know. Be like that with Him in every state. Do not speak with Him with what you know already, for that means neglecting the moment.”

NB: the master's name according to Ibn ʿArabi in his Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya and Rūḥ al-quds was Abu al-ʿAbbas al-ʿUraybi (not as in some English and French translations ʿUryani or ʿUryabi)