It is the oscillation between the thought that Allah's majesty cannot be encompassed and the thought that His jalāl (majestic glory) cannot be comprehended. Again, when he was asked what maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God) is, he replied: Maʿrifa is knowing that whatever you conceive in your qalb (the heart), the Real (al-Ḥaqq) is different from that. Ḥayra (bewilderment): the Real has no delight in anything. No one has any delight in Him either (just as He is in need of none, so too no one can possess knowledge of His essence). The ʿārif (knower) is an existent who wanders in nonexistence; he cannot describe Him. For the created is contingent; how can the subsequent encompass the preexistent? By the statement, 'the ʿārif is an existent who wanders in nonexistence,' what is meant is the possessor of ḥāl (spiritual state). He exists personally and physically, but in terms of attributes and particularities, he is nonexistent.
It is also related that Junayd said: Maʿrifa is the qalbs (hearts) seeing the final destination, and the ʿārif exercising no agency, whether little or much, in this matter. The meaning of this is that the ʿārif sees not his own state, but Allah's eternal knowledge concerning him; ultimately, he realizes that nothing will reach his hand except the portion Allah has allotted to him; and he is conscious that he is under divine agency regarding any shortcoming in service.
One of the Sufis said: Just as the rays emanating from the sun prevent one from seeing the sun's essence and totality, so too, when maʿrifa comes upon the secret, the secret becomes unable to bear maʿrifa.
Ibn al-Farghānī also said: He who recognizes the form (i.e., values created things or outward form) becomes arrogant; he who recognizes the trace (i.e., understands the manifestation of divine decree) falls into ḥayra (bewilderment); he who knows the decree becomes unable to act; he who knows the Real becomes possessed of temkīn (spiritual composure); he who knows the disposer (al-mutawallī) becomes abased. The meaning of this is: If a person sees himself as the one fulfilling the duties of the Real, he is pleased by this. One who sees Allah's decree concerning himself is left in bewilderment. For in this case, such a person cannot know Allah's decree or what the Pen has written for him (his destiny). One who knows that the portion decreed in pre-eternity cannot be brought forward or delayed refrains from asking for anything.