Maʿrifat
معرفة (maʿrifat) — « ma'rifat » chez Garcin de Tassy
The Arabic word for knowledge, specifically knowledge through unveiling rather than accumulation. In ʿAttār’s poem, *maʿrifat* is the third of the seven valleys of the path, the one “that has neither beginning nor end.” Each traverses it according to their own strength—the spider does not follow the elephant’s step; it offers “different faces,” and some find the *mihrab* there, others the idol. It is not a knowledge one carries away but a light in which, in every atom, the seeker sees the whole.
C'est celle de la connaissance ( ma'rifat ), qui n’a ni commencement ni fin.
From the Arabic root ʿ-r-f, which signifies the act of knowing, of recognizing, maʿrifat names spiritual knowledge—received through unveiling, not amassed through study. Garcin de Tassy renders it as “knowledge.” ʿAṭṭār makes it the third valley, after the quest (talab) and love (ʿishq), before self-sufficiency (istignāʾ).
What sets this valley apart from the previous ones is that it “has neither beginning nor end”: no one can dictate the length of the path one travels there. “The temporal traveler is not the spiritual traveler,” says the hoopoe; the path “reveals itself only within the limits of each one’s strength.” The image endures: on the road Abraham walked, “could the frail spider keep pace with the elephant?” Each approaches the goal “according to their disposition,” and no bird flies like another.
Hence the valley’s most unsettling maxim: spiritual knowledge “has many faces. Some have found the mihrab, others the idol.” The same unveiling does not show the same thing to all; knowledge is not a fixed content to be transmitted, but a light that illuminates “each according to their merit.” When the sun of maʿrifat shines, the mystery of beings’ essence is revealed, and the world’s furnace transforms into a garden.
Maʿrifat ≠ bookish knowledge (ʿilm). Knowledge accumulates, is tallied, cited; it is the same for all who learn it. But knowledge through unveiling is relative to the capacities of the one who receives it and is never complete. Maʿrifat ≠ istignāʾ, the fourth valley: there, this hard-won knowledge ceases to weigh, the seeker no longer measures their journey by what they have understood. The third valley illuminates; the fourth undoes even the cost of that clarity.