The Single Monad Model of the Cosmos

Ibn Arabi cited the story of his meeting with Ibn Rushd in the context of explaining the words of the central spiritual Pole Idris (mudawi al-kulum) who as Ibn Arabi said knows very well about the natural world and the effects of the higher world on it. Thus this Pole explained that: 'the world exists between the circumference and the point' [I.154.22]. The 'point' here refers to the Real (the 'Necessary Being') whose existence is self-existence, while the 'circumference' is the circle of creations (the 'possible' or contingent entities) whose existence depends on the Real. Beyond this circumference is the 'sea' of non-existence (the impossible of existence). This relationship is illustrated in Figure V.1.