And what Muhammed said: “When I left the mountains and these two persons behind me, I went on until I reached the house of sanctity (_Jerusalem_); and as I entered it, a person came to me, and gave me three cups――the one of wine, the second of water, and the other of milk. I wished to take that of wine, but Jabrííl forbade it, and pointed to that of milk, which I took and drank:” the meaning of this is: When I freed myself from sensuality, and knew the state of imagination and deception, and resolved in myself to enter the world of spirits, then I saw three spirits in the house of sanctity――the one was that of animal life, the second that of nature, and the other that of rationality. I wished to proceed on the footsteps of brutishness, and compared it to wine, the power of which is seducing, clouding, and ignorance-increasing, like passion and lust, and wine is the darkener of the two other powers. And he compared nature to water, because from it is derived the support and stability of a person, and man depends upon the temperament of the agents which act in the body;[133] water is also the vital strength of animals, and the promoter of growth and increase. And the rational spirit he compared to milk, as being a salutary and agreeable nourishment, and promoting welfare. And as to what he said: “I wished to take the wine; but he forbade it, that I might take the milk:” is in allusion to most men, who, being badly disposed, do not desist from obsequiousness to two spirits, those of nature and brutishness; and whoever is badly disposed demands what is material, and the pleasure and enjoyment of these two spirits are of this kind. “The Prophet said farther: When I arrived there I entered the mosque, and the crier called to prayer; and I stepped forward, I saw an assembly of prophets and angels standing to the right and the left; every one saluted me, and made a new covenant with me.”[134] This means: When I became freed from all converse and concern with brutishness and nature, I entered the mosque, that is, I retired into the inmost of the soul; by “crier of the mosque” is understood the power of remembering and praising God; by “one’s Imám,” meditation; and “the angels” mean the powers of the inmost soul, such as abstraction, memory, praise of God, and the like. Further, “saluting them” refers to the comprehending of all the mental powers. Thus, when one wishes to mount up to the terrace of a house, he must first have a staircase by which he may, step after step, ascend, until he attains the summit of the terrace; in like manner also are these refined powers to be considered as ladder-steps, upon which, the one after the other, a man ascends until he arrives at his aim.