The Súfis further say: God is pure, conformable to his essence, above all purity and comparison, and in the gradations of names and attributes praised in both ways. Whoever dispenses with the comparison of something which has no equal, does not know that, declaring God to be without an equal, is comparing him with pure beings. The friends of God say that his name is of three kinds, viz.: he is _itlák_, “absolute,” by his essence, or considered as an unsubstantial (abstract) thing;[180] and they give him the name of _zát_, “essence,” like that of _kadus_, “pure, holy;” that is, considered as a substance, he is the Being the meaning of which is not dependent upon the meaning of another; they call him _sifet_, “excelling in attributes,” and _háí_, “living;” that is, considered as a substance, he is a Being whose meaning is dependent upon that of another. They name him _fâl_, “action,” like _khálik_, “Creator,” which is the general name of God, as well as _rahmen_, “mercy;” but the great name is at last _khafá_, “the concealed (mysterious).” A person asked the lord Shaikh _Bayezíd Bastámí_:[181] “Which is the great name of God?” The Shaikh answered: “Communicate thou to me his least name, that I may give thee in return his greatest:” that is to say, the names of God are all great. The sagacious say: Every era is the epoch of the fame and dominion of a name, and when this epoch expires, it becomes concealed under the name which it had at the epoch of its flourishing state.[182] They say, the names of the Deity contain the distinct forms in the divine science, and these are called _aâyan sábitah_, “fixed substances,”[183] whether general or partial, and these intellectual forms received existence in eternity without beginning,[183] by _fayz_,[184] “emanation,” from the essence of God endowed with most holy emanation. Further, the intellectual forms rise into evidence with all dependencies and necessary consequences of the most holy emanation. The fixed substances have a relation to the names of bodies, and to the external substances[185] of spirits, and between all beings there arises an interposition dependent on the degree of excellence which it has with respect to God. All the reality of accidental beings lies in the external existence; the reality of individuals is dependent upon fixed times, and every one emerges into existence at his time.[186]