Deuteronômio 4:15 Cabala: Zohar & Baal HaSulam's Preface to Zohar

If one should ask: Is it not written, “For ye saw no manner of similitude” [Deut. 4:15], the answer would be: Truly, it was granted us to behold him in a given similitude for concerning Moses it is written, “and the similitude of the Lord doth he behold” [Num. 12:8]. Yet the Lord was revealed only in that similitude which Moses saw, and in none other, of any creation formed by His signs. Therefore it stands written: “To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?” [Isa. 40:18].

Here is its wording, in its pure style:⁴⁰Parashat Bo, 215-218, and in the Raya Mehemna. A person might ask: But it is written in the Torah (Deuteronomy 4:15): “For you did not see any image,” and how, then, do we expound names and sefirot as applying to Him?