Serving the Guest: A Sufi Cookbook
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Ibn Arabi in Malaga
Dish with painting of boat, Spain, 15th century.

When I went to visit Abu Muhammad 'Abdalla ibn Ibrahim al-Malaqi al-Fakhkhar of Malaga, I crossed the sea by night... We sailed along the coast until we came to our destination. There we found this Shaikh standing on the shore with his followers asking about one who was coming to see him. He was told that he had just arrived in the boat. I got out of the boat and greeted him. He took me to his house and gave me the very food I had wished for while on the boat. When I asked him why he had prepared that food rather than any other, he told me that he had been informed inwardly that I was coming by sea to visit him and that I had a particular liking for that food, and that, accordingly, he had had it prepared for my coming.

Ibn Arabi

 
 

from Serving the Guest: A Sufi Cookbook
Copyright © 1999, 2000 by Kathleen Seidel
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