Plate III
Polehood
Reality bends around the Pole.
The Turning Heaven — an engraved sky rotating about one fixed star
Fig. III a: a canvas of stars turning slowly about one fixed pole star at the upper-center. Four named stars ride the turning at increasing distance from the pole — the Seal nearest, then Messenger, Prophet, and the Saint (Wali) outermost — each a button giving its definition on hover or focus. Press and hold the pointer anywhere on the figure, or hold the Space key with the figure focused, to expose trailing arcs behind every star, growing the longer you hold; release to let them fade. The pole itself cannot be reached: the pointer is held back from its final twelve pixels, and crossing that boundary shows the definition of the Pole (Qutb), in gold. A focusable button sits on the pole for keyboard users; focusing it shows the same definition, and activating it does nothing further — the still point cannot be operated, only approached.
Fig. IIIa - the heaven wheels; one star does not. .
Design note: proximity to the Pole is minimal false contingency made spatial — the Seal's circle sits tightest of the four, closest to the exemplar it depends on, with Messenger, Prophet, and the wider ring of the Saint further out. The still point is never touched: the cursor, like the eye, always falls short of it. Hold anywhere to expose the turning as trailing light — the wheel is legible only against what does not move.
The Field of the Pole — a vector field of stars orbiting a draggable exemplar
Fig. III b: a field of about one hundred forty wandering stars sweeping in curved streams around one bright, draggable Pole starting at the figure's center. Drag the Pole with the pointer, or focus it and use the arrow keys to move it in sixteen-pixel steps; the whole field bends its orbits to follow within about a second and a half. Hovering or focusing the Pole shows its definition, the same Pole (Qutb) entry as the figure above.
Fig. IIIb - move the exemplar and the field follows: everything orbits what clarifies it.
Design note: in Fig. IIIa the Pole is witnessed — approached, never reached, its stillness the whole argument. Here it is exercised: drag it anywhere and the field's streaming orbits bend to follow, because polehood is not a position but a function any exemplar can occupy. The two figures are the same concept read two ways — contemplated, then causally exercised.