A closer look
According to the legendary 12th-century Sufi master Ibn Arabi, metaphors aren't just figures of speech—they have a zip code. He mapped out the Alam al-Mithal, an intermediary 'imaginal realm' wedged halfway between the physical world and pure spirit. In this twilight dimension, abstract concepts literally grow physical bodies, and physical bodies dissolve into pure thought. It’s a literal Barzakh (barrier) where you can supposedly interact with the physical avatar of an idea, making it the original, divinely sanctioned virtual reality.
