It is everything that is encompassed and contained. It is both the Real (al-Ḥaqq) and the creation (khalq). It is pre-eternal (qadīm) and originated (ḥādith). I congratulate the one who knows his nafs (the lower self) as I know it, for by knowing his nafs, he knows his Lord. (Marātib, 41)
The most comprehensive paths of praising Allah in the most beautiful way (Cimi'), that is, masālik-i jawāmiʿ al-isniyya/masālik-i jawāmiʿ al-ashyāʾ, are to mention Allah, the Exalted, not with the attributes that describe His Essence (dhāt), but by knowing and witnessing His Essence alongside His active attributes, and to invoke Him with the Names pertaining to His Essence (asmāʾ dhātiyya). This absolute Essence is the origin of all the Names of Allah, the Exalted. The highest and greatest form of reverence and exaltation towards Him is the absolute glorification in which He is praised with all His attributes. If the one who remembers (dhikr) praises Allah with the attributes of knowledge (ʿilm), wujūd (existence), or qudra (power), he limits his reverence and praise to these qualities. However, if he praises Allah with the Names specific to His Essence, such as al-Quddūs, al-Subbūḥ, al-Salām, al-ʿAliyy, al-Ḥaqq, and the like, which most greatly extol all His Names, he universalizes his reverence in the most perfect manner. (Kāshānī, 83; Jāmiʿ, 97)