(5) Of these three authors the last two did not discuss the treatment of trinity by Abu 'Abdillah Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240).
It seems, however, that to discuss Ibn 'Arabi's treatment of other religions and certain of their specific dogmas always from the vintage point of "pluralism" or "mysticism" obscures a very important dimension of his teachings, namely, their putative scriptural grounding.
The case of Ibn 'Arabi seems to be a limiting one as far as Lewisohn's observation regarding the "subject-centricism" and "poetical ambiguity" of the mystics is concerned.
Ibn 'Arabi did not usually deal with particular dogmas of other religions; the doctrine of the Holy Trinity seems to be one of the few exceptions.
Ibn 'Arabi's work has a multilayered concept of God.
Nicholson, the translator of these lines, read in them and in their commentary supplied by Ibn 'Arabi an attempt at showing the uniformity of Christian Trinity and Islamic Unity.
Coming to trinity, we first notice an important structural principle of Ibn 'Arabi's thought, which bespeaks of a semi-Pythagorean interest in the number three and which in our opinion is also related to his views on the doctrine of trinity.
(23) No possible thing has become existent from the one but has become existent from plural and the smallest compound number is three and it is the odd." (24) Ibn 'Arabi is perhaps the only Muslim mystic- philosopher to have given trinity such a sympathetic treatment.