[2][3] This concept is attested by the writings of al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111), but limited to epistemological categories of understanding metaphysical realities (spirits, heavens, etc.).
[4] Only centuries later, in particular with the Illuministic school of thought (Ishrāqi) and ibn Arabi (1165 – 1240), was it developed into a full ontological concept.
[5]: 189 According to Suhrawardi, after death, souls are attached to celestial bodies, which allows them to activate their imagination and experience of pain and pleasure.
Contrary to ibn Sina's view, afterlife doesn't depend entirely on intellectual efforts, but also on imaginative faculties.
[5]: 190 While perfected souls join themselves with pure light of malakut, common people enter alam al-muthal ("World of suspended images).
[5]: 191 Mulla Sadra, a Shia philosopher and theologian from the 16th century, conjectured that, like ibn Sina and al-Suhrawardi before him, souls in the otherworld create their own paradise and hell, depending on their imaginative faculties.
Hurqalya is supposed to lie beyond Mount Qaf, the border of the known world, and is identical with the barzakh in Shaykh Ahmad's cosmological system.