Este tratado sobre la naturaleza y los niveles del alma humana considera las limitaciones de los sentidos humanos y nuestra esencia verdadera o teomórfica; los diversos reinos o centros, incluyendo la Mente Absoluta, así­ como la Mente Ordinaria y la Mente Divina; la naturaleza de los firmamentos; y el significado del placer y el dolor. -
This treatise on the nature and levels of the human soul considers the limitations of human senses and our true or theomorphic essence; the various realms or Centers, including Absolute Mind as well as Ordinary Mind and Divine Mind; the nature of firmaments; and the meaning of pleasure and pain.

My studies of secondary sources on Sufism (not least the works of Henri Corbin) have long interested me in the works of Suhrawardi. Hayakal Al-Nur ("The Shape of Light") has an evocatively numinous title, and turns out to be a relatively slim volume. Interpreter Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti has used the 17th- and 20th-century Turkish translations from Arabic and Persian as the basis of the central text. The interpreter's introduction and biographical essay on Suhrawardi are clear and helpful.

To my slight disappointment, the text itself is so brief and fundamental, that it failed to introduce any ideas that I had not encountered in other sources. Still, it is a fine condensation of this species of Sufi doctrine.

My favorite parts of this book were not by Suhrawardi. The first was the calligraphic art reproduced from the Grand Mosque of Bursa, and inserted at the head of each chapter. These are amazing. For the second, I greatly enjoyed the allegorical epilogue by Muhammad Sadiq Naqshbandi Erzinjani: "I was made to know that thought cannot think about the sacred secret" (121).