Sunlight reaches the earth without the sun ever leaving its place in the sky, while a flower grows out of a tree by the tree’s own substance unfolding into it. Between those two pictures lies a question that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá returns to again and again: how can everything that exists depend wholly on God without being a piece of God? He answers that creation emanates from its Source as rays from the sun, as speech from a speaker, as a letter from the hand that writes it; the Source remains sanctified above what proceeds from it, and nothing of the divine Essence is divided or descends. Aquinas, examining creation as the dependence of all being upon its universal cause, gives the question a kindred philosophical shape [1]. To think this way is to learn nearness without confusion and transcendence without distance. The path continues toward the Primal Will through which all things are called into being, toward the station of the Manifestation of God, and toward the ceaseless, all-pervading bounty by which the outpouring never stops.
And the realization of things is of two kinds: manifestational and emanational. The manifestational is like when a flower emerges from this tree - this is manifestational realization. But what we mean is emanational realization, like rays emanating from the sun.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Answer to questions, Dublin, 1912-Aug-08 -- ABU1537)
02
The difference resides in the fact that the Sufis maintain that the realities of all things are the manifestation of the One, whereas the Prophets say that they emanate therefrom. … For example, when the seed, which is a single thing endowed with the perfections of the vegetable kingdom, manifests itself, it becomes resolved into the infinite forms of the branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit. This is called manifestational appearance, whereas in appearance through emanation the One remains transcendent in the heights of its sanctity, but the existence of the creatures is obtained from it through emanation, not manifestation. It can be compared to the sun: The rays emanate from it and shine forth upon all things, but the sun remains transcendent in the heights of its sanctity.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 82, The Unity of Existence, 1906-Dec-12 -- AB00062)
03
This quickening spirit emanates spontaneously from the Sun of Truth, from the reality of Divinity, and is not a revelation or a manifestation. It is like the rays of the sun. The rays are emanations from the sun. … This plant beside me has risen from the seed; therefore, it is a manifestation and unfoldment of the seed. … But the reality of Divinity is indivisible, and each individual of humankind cannot be a part of it as is often claimed.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Theosophical Society on 1912-Apr-25 -- ABU0262)
04
Now, just as the writing emanates from the writer and the discourse from the speaker, so does the human spirit emanate from God. But it does not manifest Him: that is, no part has been separated from the divine Reality to enter into the body of man. No, the human spirit has emanated, just as speech emanates from the speaker, and become manifested in the body of man.
As for manifestational procession, it is the manifestation of the reality of a thing in other forms, like the procession of this tree or this flower from their seeds, for it is the seed itself that has become manifested in the form of the branches, leaves and flowers.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 54, The Procession of the Human Spirit from God, 1904-Oct ca. -- AB00316)
05
Answer: The connection between God and His creation is that of the originator and the originated, of the sun and the dark bodies of the universe, of the craftsman and his handiwork.
… But appearance through manifestation is like the manifestation of the branches, leaves, blossoms and fruits from the seed; for the seed itself becomes the branches and fruit and its reality descends into them. This manifestational appearance would be sheer imperfection and utterly impossible for the Most High, for this would require unconditioned pre-existence to take on the attributes of the originated, absolute independence to become abject poverty, and the essence of existence to become pure non-existence; and this is in no wise possible.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 53, The Connection between God and Creation, 1904 ca. -- AB00876)
06
But the people of truth maintain that the appearance of the realities of things from the True One is through emanation, not manifestation, just as the ray emanates from luminous bodies - all are from Him but are not Him. The luminous rays, infinite bounties, and spiritual impressions and reflections emanated from the Sun of Truth; it is not that they were the manifestation of the Sun of Truth.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1903-Jul-04, to Barbast Birabin -- AB07082)
07
Is creation a manifestation or an emanation of God?
… All the wealth of contingencies is misery. If we know not the eternal, we are nothing, and as God is eternal, knowing God is a link to eternity. I pray you to reflect deeply upon this, that you may understand clearly. Many people think that creation is a manifestation of God, that the divine reality like unto the embryo in a seed, has come forth out of the seed and become a trunk, branches, leaves, flowers.
The prophets teach differently. Creation is an emanation from the creator.
Question: "And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."
Answer: The sanctified realities of the Manifestations of God have two spiritual stations: One is that of the state of divine manifestation, which can be compared to the orb of the sun, and the other is that of radiance and revelation, which may be likened to the divine light and perfections--the Holy Spirit.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 31, Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, 1904 ca. -- AB01521)
09
The Prophet is the emanation (radiation) of the Eternal Light. It is not an emanation of substance, but an overflowing, a reflection (literally: reflect, throw back) of light and warmth. All things appertaining to prophethood are a manifestation, a reflection of the Divine."
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken in the house of Abdu'l-Baha ca. 1909-1910 -- ABU0218)
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
10
The existence of things is of two kinds: existence through manifestation and existence through emanation. The existence through emanation is like unto the existence of rays which have emanated from that Real Being or Existence. Consequently things are from Him and He is not in the things. Existence through manifestation is, for example, the existence of this flower which has appeared from this tree.
(Mahmud's Diary, 8 Aug. 1912. See Badayi'u'l-Athar vol. 1, p. 184: This text follows the two paragraphs on p. 199 of the English translation.)