raised their heads above the waves, each bearing a jewel in its mouth. A legendary alchemist and thaumaturge, he is supposed to have known the secret of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. His sayings and poems, which are extremely dense and rich in mystical imagery, emphasize knowledge or gnosis (marifah) more than fear (makhafah) or love (mahabbah), the other two major paths of spiritual realization in Sufism. None of his written works have survived, but a vast collection of poems, sayings, and aphorisms attributed to him continues to live on in oral tradition. Osho mentions him as "an Egyptian Sufi mystic, one of the greatest who has ever walked on the earth". Contemporary Sufi Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee mentions an incident from the life of Dhul-nun in his work Catching the Thread A story from the life of the ninth-century Sufi, Dhu-l-Nun, the Egyptian, illustrates this: I was wandering in the mountains when I observed a party of afflicted folk gathered together. “What befell you?” I asked. “There is a devotee living in a cell here,” they answered. “Once every year he comes out and breathes on these people and they are all healed. Then he returns to his cell, and does not emerge again until the following year.” I waited patiently until he came out. I beheld a man pale of cheek, wasted and with sunken eyes. The awe of him caused me to tremble. He looked on the multitude with compassion. Then he raised his eyes to heaven, and breathed several times over the afflicted ones. All were healed. As he was about to retire to his cell, I seized his skirt. “For the love of God,” I cried. “You have healed the outward sickness; pray heal the inward sickness.” “Dhu-l-Nun,” he said, gazing at me, “take your hand off me. The Friend is watching from the zenith of might and majesty. If He sees you clutching at another than He, He will abandon you to that person, and that person to you, and you will perish each at the other’s hand.” So saying, he withdrew into his cell. Notes External links Sufi Teachings of Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri at archive.org. 9th-century Egyptian people 9th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate Medieval Egyptian historians Egyptian Sufi saints Egyptian religious leaders Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world 9th-century deaths