Or maʿqūl (conceivable) forms: these are the manifestations (tajalliyāt) of the meanings spoken of, in the category of the perceptible. The maḥsūs (perceptible) form is as in the following hadith of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him): "I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth" (Khaṭīb, I, 214; Dhahabī, II, 363). The maʿqūl (conceivable) form is as in the following hadith qudsi: "I am as My servant thinks of Me. He may think of Me as he wills" (Bukhārī, Tawḥīd, 15; Muslim, Tawba, 1; Dhikr, 6). What is meant by tashbīh (comparison, anthropomorphism) is this perceptible and conceivable form. There is no doubt that when Allah Most High manifests in the form of beauty (jamāl), He remains, with respect to tanzīh (transcendence), as He truly is (His manifestation does not compromise His transcendence and permanence). Just as you give Allah His due in tanzīh, so too must you give Him His due in divine tashbīh.
Tashbīh regarding Allah is a judgment contrary to tanzīh. Tashbīh is a unique situation regarding Him. However, none but the perfected among the people of God (ahl Allāh) can witness this. Other ʿārif (gnostics) can only apprehend what we have said through faith (īmānī) and imitation (taqlīdī). This is possible only to the extent required by the forms of His beauty (ḥusn) and jamāl. For every form among existing things is a form of His beauty. If you witness the form of tashbīh from one aspect but do not witness anything of tanzīh, the Real (al-Ḥaqq) has shown you His beauty and jamāl from a single aspect. If He shows Himself to you in the form of tashbīh and, in this manifestation, tanzīh is also involved, then know that the Real has shown you His beauty and majesty (jamāl and jalāl), from the perspectives of both tashbīh and tanzīh. "So wherever you turn, there is the Face (wajh) of Allah" (al-Baqara 2:115). Thus, whether you perform tanzīh or tashbīh, in every case, you are immersed in manifestations from which you can never be separated.
Tanzīh-tashbīh 1055... The Real (al-Ḥaqq) has two kinds of tashbīh: Of these, essential tashbīh (tashbīh-i dhātī) is the form in which the Real manifests in the forms of perceptible (maḥsūs) existents, or in things resembling the perceptible in imagination (khayāl). Attributive tashbīh (tashbīh-i waṣfī) is the manifestation in the forms of meanings belonging to divine names that are transcendent above things resembling the perceptible. The forms mentioned are those that can be conceived in the mind but have no modality (kayfiyya) in the realm of the senses. If they do have a modality, they belong to essential tashbīh. For possessing a modality is the perfection (kamāl) of tashbīh, and perfection is fitting for the Essence (Dhāt). What remains is attributive tashbīh, which is tashbīh that cannot possibly possess a modality of any kind. There is no example that can clarify this. (Insān, I, 33)
According to the people of ḥaqīqa (inner reality)—that is, those who have attained to the realities of things—tanzīh, with regard to the Divine Presence, is itself limitation (taḥdīd) and restriction (taqyīd)... But Allah is transcendent above limitation and restriction. The people of ḥaqīqa have even transcended tanzīh itself. They never perform tanzīh alone. Rather, they perform tanzīh in the station (maqām) of tanzīh, and tashbīh in the station of tashbīh. It is not possible to know the Real without limitation and restriction. ...One who performs only tanzīh is either ignorant—such as the philosophers who, according to their intellects, attempt to transcend the Real from the attributes He Himself possesses, and those who imitate them without knowledge of the sharia—or is ill-mannered, that is, those who know the sharia but speak incorrectly. If they claim to perform tanzīh of Allah in an absolute sense—believing that Allah is transcendent above knowledge, hearing, sight, and other existential attributes—they hold a view not in accordance with the sharia. Therefore, they are ignorant, that is, disbelievers (kāfir), and there is no need to state that their views are invalid.
One who affirms the sharia—that is, a muʾmin (believer)—the phrase is grammatically an appositive (bayān) to the one who affirms the sharia. If the muʾmin performs tanzīh, settles on tanzīh, and accepts nothing else—meaning, when the station of tashbīh arrives, he does not perform tashbīh—he is ill-mannered and denies the Real and His messengers. He cannot foresee such a consequence. He is here, while the Real is absent. In this state, he is like one who believes in part of the sharia and denies part of it, especially like the Muʿtazila, who denied some of the attributes of Allah and some states of the Hereafter. As for the statement of Shaykh Ibn ʿArabī here: "If the muʾmin performs tanzīh, settles on tanzīh, and accepts nothing else, he is ill-mannered and denies the Real and His messengers," this means...