In this stage he awakes from the first sleep; in the second stage, from the second; in the third, from the third sleep; in the fourth stage, from the last sleep; and in this awaking of the heart he becomes thoroughly and entirely awake, and acquires perfect possession of himself, and knows positively that all he had known in the three preceeding stages was not so: because truth, having been but imaginary, was falsehood; and that heaven and earth, as they had been understood before, were not so. Further, in this stage, earth will not be that earth, and heaven not that heaven, which men knew before. This is the meaning of the words: “On the day when the earth shall be changed into something else than the earth, as well as the heaven, and when all that shall be manifested by the power of God, the only one, the Almighty.”[214] And when they arrived at that station and possessed positively the form of mind, qualities, and reason of an individual, certainly they knew by means of revelation and inspiration, that except one there is no being, and this being is God, the glorious and sublime; they were informed of the real state of things from the beginning to the utmost extremity. In the account concerning the obscuration of the moon, and sun, and stars, they said: that stars have their meaning from the beginning of the light, which is produced in the hearts of the intelligent and select; that the sun denotes the utmost fulness and universality of light; and that the moon, a mediator between the sun and the star,[215] from all sides, spreads their tidings. Then the sun is the universal bestower of abundant blessings; the moon is in one respect “a benefactor,” in another respect, “benefitted.” As often as the sun’s light, which is the universal light, manifests and spreads itself, unity of light comes forth; the light of the moon and that of the stars is effaced by the light of the sun. From the beginning, the prophet says, that―― “When the stars shall fall, And in the midst, “When the moon shall be obscured,” And when the select associate with the bestower of abundant blessings, that “When the sun and moon shall unite,” there remains no trace of _istifáset_, “diffusion,” nor of _afáset_,[216] “profusion.” “When the sun shall be folded up.”