Ḥijāb, lit. ‘veil’ or ‘curtain’, any obstacle restricting sensory, especially visual and auditory perception, any barrier separating two entities or partitioning two spaces from each other, hence used as a technical term in Sufism, Islamic gnosis and mysticism, primarily referring to the notion of interconnected cosmic and meta-cosmic veils paradoxically concealing and revealing the indefinite and multiple determinations of the divine reality (see below). The usual equivalent of the term ḥijāb in Persian mystical and Sufi literature is pardah (e.g. Maybudī, 8/411). The cl…