Ben Jelloun's text is full of apparent ambiguities: masculine-feminine, lie-truth, visibility-invisibility... This dichotomic structure is based on the pair zahir-battin, concepts from Sufistic philosophy, inserted in between the lines through Jorge Luis Borges (either as character or as intertext), and through the direct mention of Islamic mysticism. The multiple storytellers and the tragic quest, by the main characters, of their identities, reveal the obstinate and symbolic use of the mask by Ben Jelloun, which reinforces the dichotomy, but also reveals its illusory nature. Other Sufi themes can be stressed: laughter, the dhikr, the double, the magic mirror, unity in multiplicity, the dissolution of individuality, the extinction - fanâ, and the illusion of time. These themes represent the ambiguous situation and condition of the migrant.
sufism; zahir; battin; mask; time; illusion