Erāʾik-i tawhid (the couches of tawhid), as manifestations of the Divine Essence (Dhāt), are names pertaining to the Essence. They were first in the presence of wāḥidiyya (the station of Oneness). (Kāshānī, 28; Jāmiʿ, 76)
erbaʿūn/erbaʿīn (أربعون/أربعين, forty): Among the Sufis, erbaʿīn (a forty-day retreat and spiritual discipline) does not signify anything specific beyond this practice. However, when they encounter a situation that does not accord with their spiritual state (ḥāl), they desire to connect their time (their states) to the erbaʿīn. They do this in order to extend the effect of the erbaʿīn throughout all their moments. Thus, in all their times, they are as if in the erbaʿīn. Just as it is stated in the hadith: Whoever acts with ikhlas (sincerity) for Allah for forty mornings, springs of ḥikma (wisdom) will appear from his heart (qalb) upon his tongue. Allah the Exalted, in a story concerning Prophet Mūsā (peace be upon him), in view of the strength of his complete devotion (tabattul) to Allah, assigned the erbaʿīn to him. Allah the Exalted said: "And We made an appointment with Mūsā for thirty nights and perfected them by [the addition of] ten; so the term of his Lord was completed as forty nights." (al-Aʿrāf 7:142) (ʿAwārif, 123)
The ledunni (divinely bestowed) knowledge in the qalb (heart) of those who set out on the path of Allah is an allusion to knowledge without speech: Whoever, for forty days, turns to Allah Most High with sincerity, making a pact with his nafs (lower self) and keeping his stomach light, Allah will open to him the doors of ledunni knowledge. (See also: mujāhada; riyāḍa)