Notes
One sentence from a source, in the original and in English, and three questions. A new one each week.
Mirror
When you look in a mirror, is the reflection real?
Ikhwan al-Safa: the whole world in one point
The forms of all visible things meet in the mirror and in the pupil.
Ibn Sina: the face is not where you see it
The one looking into the mirror imagines he sees his form in it, and it is not so.
Ibn al-Haytham: an image has an address
The images are the forms seen in polished bodies, and each has its place.
al-Ghazali: three things, not two
The mirror is one thing, the person another, and the likeness in the mirror a third.
Suhrawardi: touch the glass
Know that the form is not in the mirror.
Ibn Arabi: neither true nor false
He is neither telling the truth nor lying when he says: I saw my form, I did not see my form.
Rumi: the rust
Do you know why your mirror tells nothing? The rust is not cleared from its face.
Shabistari: nothing is the mirror
Non-being is the mirror of absolute being.
al-Jili: no face, no image
There is no way for a form to exist in a mirror without something facing it.