The Sufi mystic Mansur Al Hallaj was meditating once, when he suddenly exclaimed "I am the Truth! And there is nothing in my Turban but God!" There were a number of devout Muslims around who heard him, and they immediately assumed he was blaspheming, so they took him and burnt him at the stake.

That night, one of the killers had a vivid dream. In it he was looking at the stake, when he saw the soul of Mansur Al-Hallaj leave its body and ascend directly into the Seventh (i.e. Highest) Heaven. This troubled him. He cried out: "Allah! When Pharaoh said 'I am God' he was damned for blasphemy! But when Al-Hallaj said it he is taken up into Heaven! How can this be right?"

Thereupon, he heard the voice of Allah: "When Pharaoh said 'I am God', he forgot Me and thought only of himself. But when Al-Hallaj said 'I am God', he forgot himself and thought only of Me. Therefore in Pharaoh's mouth it was a curse; but in Al-Hallaj's mouth it is a Blessing."