The author and illustrator of this beautiful book has discovered a wonderful way to effectively communicate normally difficult material to a wide audience. Almost every time I am working with students on a passage from Ibn Arabi’s Futuhat or Fusus al Hikam — and usually with a number of students reading Ibn Arabi for the first time—I'm struck by how much more penetrating the material would be for the students if the translations were broken down to very small and coherent little sections. This is exactly what Demi has done in this book, and it is also what the following generations of Persian-language poetic interpreters or poets inspired by Ibn 'Arabi did in their own poetic works (poets such as Eraqi, Maghrebi, Jami and other Central Asian/Indian poets). Demi’s approach is definitely more direct and memorable for all those readers who can't do an in-depth and focused study of Ibn Arabi's works in the way one would study a difficult philosophical or theological text.

“The backgrounds of the illustrations are patterned without being predictable, with the imperfections that make them perfect – just as the world is, as Ibn al-ʿArabī reminds us (and al-Ghazali, and Leibniz), the most perfect of all possible worlds. And such a delight it is to have these analogue paintings with character, so far from digital and machine sameness. If these paintings ‘cast you on the path’, then their creator has succeeded. And if they cast you on the path, this may be your invitation to study the Futuhat al-Makkiyah (The Openings Revealed in Makkah).”