At one of the great Court banquets where everyone sat according to his rank while awaiting the appearance of the King, a plain, shabbily dressed man entered the hall and took a seat above everyone else. His boldness angered the Prime Minister who demanded that he identify himself and acknowledge if he were a vizier. The stranger replied that he ranked above a vizier. The astonished Prime Minister then asked if he were a prime minister. Again the man replied that he was above that position. When asked if he were the King himself he answered that he was above that too.
“Then you must be a Prophet”, declared the Prime Minister; to which the man again asserted that he ranked above that position.
Angrily, the Prime Minister shouted, “Are you then God?” to which the man calmly replied, “I am above that too”.
Contemptuously, the Prime Minister declared, “There is nothing above God”. In reply the man said, “Now you know my identity. That nothing is me”.

– tale retold by A. Reza Arasteh

Image above: Allan Gluck, CC-BY-SA-4.0

identity nothingness status story