Khidr and the things narrated about him are real. He is the scholar of the earth, the leader of the abdal (abdāl, the spiritual substitutes), and he is Allah's soldier on earth. (Kāshānī, 160)
Khidr is a metaphor for bast (expansion); Ilyās is a metaphor for qabḍ (contraction) of his ḥāl (spiritual state). There is no transmitted or rational possibility to verify whether Khidr is a human being who has come from the time of Prophet Musa (Moses) to this zamān (time), or a spiritual being who has taken on the form of Prophet Musa. Rather, he has assumed the form of Prophet Musa with a spiritually dominant attribute, and then ceased to exist. According to the common people, this is his spirit (rūḥ) or the Holy Spirit (Rūḥ al-Qudus). According to the people of verification, his existence is established. (Kāshānī, 160; Jāmiʿ, 82)