The Lote Tree is an Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

 concerning the uppermost boundary in knowledge a human being can possess concerning Allah

Allah

Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

.

Quran sources

It comes from the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

 chapter 53, An-Najm (The Star), verses 10-18 and alludes to Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

's night journey from Mecca

Mecca

Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

 to Jerusalem and then through Heaven

Heaven

Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

. "The Lote Tree of the farthest boundary," as it is called, is believed to be the farthest anyone can travel in Heaven in their approach to Allah; beyond this none can pass. The following are the Quranic verses from which this term is derived :

10 So did Allah convey the inspiration to His Servant what He (meant) to convey.

11 The heart in no way falsified that which he saw.

12 Will ye then dispute with him concerning what he saw?

13 For indeed he saw him at a second descent,

14 Near the Lote-tree beyond which none may pass:

15 Near it is the Garden of Abode.

16 Behold, the Lote-tree was shrouded (in mystery unspeakable!)

17 (His) sight never swerved, nor did it go wrong!

18 For truly did he see, of the Signs of his Lord, the Greatest!

Sufi narrations

The following is an excerpt from a non-Quranic Sufi narration of the Prophet's encounter with the Lote Tree. Sufis narrations do not follow the strict method of evaluation developed by early Muslim scholars in determining the veracity of reports attributed to Prophet Muhammad. Thus its authenticity is disputed in contrast to authenticated hadeeth:

The Prophet and Gabriel traveled once more until they reached the absolute limit of the created intellect, named sidrat al-muntaha: "The Lote-Tree of the Farthest Boundary." There they saw nothing which the tongue could describe. The effect of the sight they beheld on the Prophet is a secret which took place in his heart. A sound came to them from above which dissipated some of the Prophet's astonishment. At that time he saw a large tree which does not resemble any of the trees of Paradise, a tree without description, covering all the Paradises, heavens, and universes. The trunk of the Tree was a huge angel named Samrafil. The Prophet could see nothing else besides it. It grew from an infinite, unimaginable, indescribable ocean of musk. The tree had an infinite number of branches, created from a heavenly element that has no name in a created language. The distance between one branch and another was five hundred thousand light-years. On every branch there was an infinite number of leaves. If all the created universes were placed on a single one of these leaves they would disappear, like an atom disappears inside an ocean of water. On every leaf sat a huge angel in a multi-colored light. On his head was a crown of light and in his hand a staff of light. Written on their forehead was the inscription: "We are the inhabitants of the Lote-Tree." Their praise was: "Praise be to God Who has no end." Their names are the sarufiyyun or Seraphim, "The Secret Ones," because they are created from the absolute secret of their Lord.