Love’s creative power does not stop at the externalization and maintenance of the cosmos.

Although the jewels of the Hidden Treasure have been thrown out into the open, most creatures do not recognize them for what they are, nor do they understand that their own loves and desires externalize God’s love.

Their love is simply God’s own love reflected in the creatures. It follows that, as Ibn Arabi puts it, “None loves God but God,”11

and “There is no lover and no beloved but God.”12

Lovers grasp this when they reach the point of seeing God in everything that exists.