In this section of the Kashf al-Mahjub, Hujwiri cites Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Balkhi's dictum that knowledge (علم) is of three kinds: knowledge from God (علم من الله), knowledge with God (علم مع الله), and knowledge by God (علم بالله).

• Knowledge by God (علم بالله) is the knowledge of gnosis (معرفت), by which the saints know Him. It cannot be acquired, because all means of acquisition are cut off before the Real; the servant's own knowledge is not the cause of gnosis — rather God's guidance and self-disclosure are its cause.
• Knowledge from God (علم من الله) is the knowledge of the religious law (شریعت), which reaches us from Him as command and obligation.
• Knowledge with God (علم مع الله) is the knowledge of the stations (مقامات) of the path and the exposition of the ranks of the saints.

Hujwiri concludes that the three are interdependent: gnosis is not sound without accepting the law, and the practice of the law is not right without the manifestation of the stations.