Baha al-Din Valad most often describes his experience of God with the emotions of awe, love and fear, reflected predominantly in three modes of worship — magnification of God, contemplation of God and self-purification. His love of God and his visions often raise him into a state of bliss. He talks often of "taste" (maze), a Persian word corresponding to the more common Arabic term found in Sufi manuals (zowq), signifying direct experience of the spiritual world, as opposed to ratiocination about it. By "taste" Baha al-Din also implies a feeling of delight or a capacity to be moved by, sensitive to and receptive of life and the wonders of God's creation.
— Franklin D. Lewis, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West