صوف

صُوفِىٌّ ذ , a post-classical word, A man of the people called the صُوفِيَّة: (Msb:) [formerly applied to any devotee: afterwards, particularly, to a mystic; one who seeks to raise himself to a high degree of spiritual excellence by contemplation of divine things so as to elicit the mysteries thereof: ] the صُوفِيَّة may be so called [from the Greek σοφο͂σ : or] in relation to the people called اآلُ صُوفَان, [see صُوفَةٌ,] as resembling them in the devotion of themselves to religious exercises: or in relation to those called أَهْلُ الصُّفَّةِ, wherefore they are also called الصُّفِّيَّةُ: or in relation to الصُّوف [i. e. wool], which is proper to devotees and recluses: this last is the derivation commonly received. (TA.)