The attachment to multiplicity is also, in a certain sense, the Biblical "temptation", which, by making the being taste the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil", moves him away from the original central unity and stops him from reaching the "Tree of Life"; and it is just by that, in fact, that the being is subjected to birth and death. The seemingly endless path of multiplicity is depicted exactly by the coils of the serpent winding round the tree that symbolizes the "Axis of the World"; it is the path of "those who are led astray (ad-daalliin), of those who are in "error" in the etymological sense of the word, as opposed to the "straight path" (as-siraat al-mustaqiim), in vertical ascension along the axis itself, the path that is spoken of in the first Surat of the Quran. (footnote: This "straight path" is identical with the Te or "Rectitude" of Lao- Tse, which is the direction to be followed by a being in order that his existence may be in accordance with the "way" (Tao), or, in other words, in conformity with the Principle.) Studies in Comparative Religion Winter Issue (1973) AL-FAQR (’SPIRITUAL POVERTY’)