The final departure from Andalusia

After spending more than a year in seclusion, as we saw at the end of the previous chapter, Shaykh Muhyiddin left Andalusia for the last time, travelling towards the Maghreb and from there eastwards through Tunis and Egypt. We do not know exactly when or from where Ibn al-Arabi left Andalusia. It is certain, however, that at the end of 596 or the beginning of 597 he was in the Maghreb, in a town called “the end of the land”, because beyond it lay only the surrounding ocean. This was Salé, on Morocco’s western coast, west of Fez. We have established this date because we shall find him in Abjisil, between Salé and Marrakesh, in Muharram at the beginning of 597, corresponding to November or December 1200.