The Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth, by R. Azariel Ben Menachem, as its name implies, is directly in consonance with the Sohar.
As to the Book Jetzirah, Dr. Ginsburg says: “The Book Jetzirah, which the Cabbalists claim is their oldest document, has really nothing in common with the cardinal doctrines of the Cabbalah. There is not a word in it bearing on the En Soph (Impersonal First Cause), the Archetypal Man,” and so on, and so on. But here the doctor is at fault for this reason:—The word “Sephiroth” means “Numbers,” and the Ten Sephiroth means the Ten Numbers; and in the Cabbalistic way these are composed out of a geometrical shape. The circle is the first naught, but out of this naught develops a straight vertical line, viz: the diameter of this circle. This is the first One; and having a first one, from it comes 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9,—the circle or naught and its diameter one, the embracement of all together, forming the comprehensive Ten, or Ten Numbers, Ten Sephiroth, Ten Emanations, the Heavenly Man, the great Jah, of the ineffable name. Hence the contents of the book Jetzirah are of the very essence of the other two, and all are one.
Sufism,
Or Theosophy From the Standpoint of Mohammedanism.
A Chapter from a MS. work designed as a text book for Students in Mysticism.
BY C. H. A. BJERREGAARD, Stud. Theos.
In Two Parts:—Part I, Texts; Part II, Symbols.
The spirit of Sufism is best expressed in the couplet of Katebi:
“Last night a nightingale sung his song, perched on a high cypress, when the rose, on hearing his plaintive warbling, shed tears in the garden, soft as the dews of heaven.”