Knowledge of Self is Knowledge of God...

"... the Prophet, peace be upon him, said;

"Whoever knows himself knows his Lord."

If you wish, you can say that this tradition is the forbidding of gnosis and stating the inability to attain to Him -

and that is a permissible statement;

and, if you wish, you can say that it is the affirmation of gnosis.

The first is that if you do not know yourself, so you will not know your Lord.

The second is that you recognise yourself, so you do recognise your Lord."


Ibn 'Arabi
_The Seals of Wisdom_