Shaykh Abu ´l-Ḥasan `Alí b. Abí `Alí al-Aswad was an excellent successor to his father, and was unique in the sublimity of his aspiration and the sagacity of his intelligence.
It would be difficult to mention all the Shaykhs of Khurásán. I have met three hundred in that province alone who had such mystical endowments that a single man of them would have been enough for the whole world. This is due to the fact that the sun of love and the fortune of the Ṣúfí Path is in the ascendant in Khurásán.
6. Transoxiana.
The Khwája and Imám, honoured by high and low, Abú Ja`far Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn[[107]] al-Ḥaramí, is an ecstatic (mustami`) and enraptured man, who has a great affection towards the seekers of God.
Khwája Abú Muḥammad Bángharí[[108]] had an excellent spiritual life, and there was no weakness in his devotional practices.
Aḥmad Íláqí was the Shaykh of his time. He renounced forms and habits.
Khwája `Árif was unparalleled in his day.
`Alí b. Isḥáq was venerated and had an eloquent tongue.
I have seen all these Shaykhs and ascertained the “station” of each of them. They were all profound theosophists.