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Ibn 'Arabi in Mecca (1201–04)
In 1200 Ibn 'Arabi left Andalusia for the last time to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. Here he began many writing projects, notably his monumental Futuhat al-Makkiyya (Meccan Illuminations). The writing of this 37-volume work, which contains a complete esoteric exposition of the Quran and the Way of Islam, would take the next 29 years to complete. This book was inspired by his meeting with the mysterious Youth (Story 3).
While in Mecca he met "a group of the most eminent men and women,
the elite of spiritual good behaviour and learning". Amongst them
was a beautiful girl called Nizam, a shaykh's daughter, who became the
inspiration for his wonderful collection of poems entitled Tarjuman
al-ashwaq (Interpreter of Ardent Desires).
His spiritual inheritance from the Prophet Muhammad was further exemplified
by a vision of the Ka'ba (Story 4) built of bricks:
the silver ones denoted his complete conformity to the prophetic law,
the gold ones represented his interior nature.
The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, visited by Ibn 'Arabi in c.1202
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A mosaic detail from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus
O marvel! A garden amidst the flames!
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles, and a convent for Christian monks,
A temple for idols, and the pilgrim's Ka'ba,
the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way
Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith.
Tarjuman al-ashwaq
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