It is through symbols that one is awakened; it is through symbols that one is transformed; and it is through symbols that one expresses. The entire journey in God is a journey in symbols, in which one is constantly aware of the higher reality within things. Symbols reflect both Divine transcendence and Divine immanence; they refer to both the universal aspect of creation and the particular aspect of tradition.

Symbolism is perhaps the most sacred of Sufi sciences, for it is through seeing symbols that one continues to remember, to invoke. Each time one forgets, and is pulled back into the sea of unconscious psychic forces, one must struggle again to remember; and it is only through an understanding of the symbolic that one can do so.

'Sufi Expressions of the Mystic Quest' by Leleh Bakhtiar

The Sufi knows that 
"man cannot create symbols: 
he is transformed by them."