The Prophetic Visions of the Prophets and the Act of Intellect

Al-Farabi is in broad agreement with his predecessor Al-Kindi, who wrote a work on prophetic dreams. These images may in some cases be like riddles which need to be decoded. Thanks to the symbolic images the prophet received from God through the act of intellect, he is able not just to foretell the future, but also to represent what he knows in a way that his subjects can appreciate.