" Know that among the special qualities of the spirits (arwah) is whenever they touch anything
life flows into it. This is why the Samiri (2) seized a handful of dust from the track of the
messenger, who was Jibril, and he is the Spirit. The Samiri had knowledge of this matter.
When he recognised that it was Jibril, he knew that life would flow into whatever he had
walked on, so he took a handful of dust (3) from the track of the messenger or he filled his
hand or the ends of his fingers, (4) and threw it into the Calf. The Calf made a noise like the
sound of a cow mooing. If it had been in another form, the name of that form's sound would
have been ascribed to it - as grumbling to the camel, baa-ing to rams, bleating to sheep, and
voice or articulation and speech to man. That power from the life which flows in things is
called lâhût. The nâsût is the locus on which the spirit is based. The nâsût may be called a
spirit by what is based on it. "

― Ibn Arabi , The Bezels of Wisdom